Fill in the Blanks Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The answer is to avoid: Try to avoid being late for office.

Try to + verb means to make an effort to do something, which is the sense of this advice. The verb avoid is then followed by a gerund, being late, so the full pattern is try to avoid being late.

Try avoid leaves out the needed to, and try avoided uses a past form where a base form is needed. Try avoiding would mean experimenting with avoidance to see the result, a different sense, and it stacks two -ing forms (avoiding being), which the sentence avoids.

Answer: C

The connector is In case: In case you have any doubt, please ask me.

In case here introduces a possible situation and means 'if' or 'should': if you happen to have a doubt, ask me.

Because gives a reason and would assume the doubt already exists, which does not suit an open offer. Unless means 'if not' and would reverse the meaning (ask me unless you have a doubt). Until refers to time and makes no sense with 'have any doubt'.

Answer: B

The correct tag is aren't I ?: I am looking after the garden, aren't I?

A positive statement takes a negative question tag formed with the same auxiliary. With I am, the logical form am I not has no standard contraction, so English uses aren't I as the accepted tag.

Amn't I is dialectal (heard in Scotland and Ireland) and is not standard. Isn't I breaks subject-verb agreement, since is goes with he, she or it. Don't I uses the wrong auxiliary: the sentence's auxiliary is am, not do.

Answer: C

The word is judicious: one should be content with making a judicious selection.

Judicious means showing good judgement, wise and sensible. Since no one can read every book, the sensible course is to choose wisely which ones to read.

A normal or moderate selection says nothing about choosing well, which is the point of the sentence. An imposed selection would be forced on the reader, which does not fit 'one should be content with making'.

Answer: A

The answer is comprises: The United Kingdom comprises England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Comprise means to consist of or be made up of, and it takes its parts as a direct object, with no preposition: the whole comprises the parts.

Consists has the right meaning but must be followed by of (consists of England, Wales...), so it does not fit the blank as it stands. Combines and conjoins mean to join things together, which is not the same as stating what something is made up of.

Answer: B

The answer is deliverance.

Deliverance means being set free or rescued. Release from the cycle of birth and rebirth is moksha, which the sentence describes as attainable only by good deeds.

Bondage is the opposite, the state of being bound, which is what one seeks deliverance from. Delivery means handing something over, or childbirth, not liberation. Retirement means withdrawing from work. None of these fits.

Answer: A

The key gives Perpetual.

The sentence asks for an adjective for the efforts needed to raise the social and economic condition of the people, and the key reads 'perpetual' as continuing without a break, which suits a task that is never finished.

'Dynamic' and 'Exploring' do not suit 'efforts from all concerned', since 'exploring' is not an adjective of quality for efforts and 'dynamic' describes energetic people or change. 'Massive' is the awkward rival, because 'massive efforts' is a very common collocation; the key gives A, so the question follows it.

Answer: B

The answer is if: A student will fail if he does not work hard.

The sentence states a condition and its result, so it needs a conditional connector. Because the condition is already negative (does not work hard), the connector must be if.

Unless already means 'if not', so unless he does not work hard would make a double negative and say the opposite: he will fail if he works hard. Unless would need a positive verb, unless he works hard. Because states a reason rather than a condition, and until refers to time.

Answer: C

The answer is therefore: We lost the key. We had, therefore, to break the lock open.

The second sentence states the consequence of the first, so it needs a connector of result. Therefore, set off by commas in the middle of the sentence, means 'for that reason'.

Still signals contrast or continuation, which does not fit. For introduces a reason, so it would wrongly make breaking the lock the cause of losing the key. Since therefore fits, 'None of these' is wrong.

Answer: A

The answer is observed: The Republic Day was observed with due solemnity.

To observe a day is to mark it formally with the proper ceremonies and respect, and it collocates naturally with with due solemnity, which stresses dignity and seriousness.

Celebrated suggests festivity and rejoicing, which sits less well with solemnity. Enjoyed describes personal pleasure, and performed is used of ceremonies or duties, not of a day.