- A growing number of these expert professionals ___________ having to train foreigners as the students end up ___________ the teachers who have to then unhappily content with no jobs at all or new jobs with drastically reduced pay packets
(a) are, supplanting (b) welcome, assisting
(c) resist, challenging (d) resent, replacing
Answer: (a) Expert professionals are having to train, and students supplant (replace) teachers.
- Women should be paid the same as men-when they do the same job, for surely, what is sauce for the______ is sauce for the ___
(a) goose, gander (b) cock, hen
(c) fox, vixen (d) buck, doe
Answer: (a) What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander means what is acceptable for one person in a particular situation should be acceptable for another person in a similar situation.
- He has a____tongue; his pinching sarcasm has______ everyone who has come into contact with him.
(a) wanton, immunised
(b) vitriolic, alienated
(c) pungent, animated
(d) recalcitaant, humanized
Answer: (b) Go for the second blank first. What is sarcasm? It is saying the opposite of what you mean. One gets sarcastic in order to mock or insult others. Take an example of sarcasm: You meet an ugly girl. She asks you to accompany her. Repelled by her ugliness, you tell her sarcastically, “I don’t go around with beautiful (obviously, you mean ugly!) girls.” Such a statement pinches the girl.
A girl whom you have treated with such “pinching sarcasm” will never be friendly or sympathetic to you in future. You have thus alienated her. Those who are thus “pinchingly sarcastic” have a vitriolic tongue. That is, their words are full of bitterness and hate, and so cause a lot of distress and pain.
- Though one eye is kept firmly on the___________, the company now also promotes ___________ contemporary art.
(a) present, experimental (b) future, popular
(c) present, popular (d) market, popular
Answer: (b) Since the company in the present promotes popular contemporary (of the present time) art it also keeps an eye on the future.
- The law prohibits a person from felling a sandalwood tree, even if it grows on one’s own land, without prior permission from the government. As poor people cannot deal with the government this legal provision leads to a rip-roaring business for ___________, who care neither for the ___________ , nor for the trees.
(a) middlemen, rich (b) the government, poor
(c) touts, rich (d) touts, poor
Answer: (d) The touts persuade the people to sell illegally thereby making a profit, not caring about either the poor or the trees.
- It will take some time for many South koreans to ___________ the conflicting images of North Korea, let alone to___________ what to make of their northern cousins.
(a) reconcile, decide (b) understand, clarify
(c) make out, decide (d) reconcile, understand
Answer: (a) North and South Korea were divided after IInd World War thus it will take them sometime to reconcile (restore relations) when South Koreans cannot even decide what to do of the North Koreans.
- In these bleak and depressing times of ___________ prices, non-performing governments and ___________ crime rates, Sourav Ganguly has given us, Indians , a lot to cheer about.
(a) escalating, increasing (b) spiralling, booming
(c) spiralling, soaring (d) ascending, debilitating
Answer: (c) Prices are usually called as spiralling up as well as the increasingly soaring crime rates. Soaring means increasing rapidly.
- The genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda, apart from being mis-described in the most sinister and _________ manner as ‘ethnic cleansing’, were also blamed, in further handwashing rhetoric, on something dark and interior to __________ and perpetrators alike.
(a) innovative, communicator
(b) enchanting, leaders
(c) disingenuous, victims
(d) exigent, exploiters
Answer: (c) The situation due to the genocides is sinister, which means threatening. So the other word which will fill the first blank has to complement sinister. Thus the options which may fit in can be disingenuous (which means lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity) or tragic. The other three words are positive words.
In the last part of the sentence, ‘to ……………. and perpetrators alike’ the contrast between the blank word and perpetrators (to commit: to perpetrate a crime) is quite clear. So the correct option is victims, which is antonym to perpetrators.
- As navigators, calendar makers, and other _________ of the night sky accumulated evidence to the contrary, ancient astronomers were forced to __________ that certain bodies might move in circles about points, which in turn moved in circles about the earth.
(a) scrutinizers, believe (b) observers, agree
(c) scrutinizers, suggest (d) observers, concede
Answer: (d) Students would be a very casual option for the first blank. So we have to choose among scrutinizers and observers. However, the second part of the sentence describes how the ancient astronomers were forced to change their opinion in the face of contradictory evidence. When someone is compelled to accept defeat, ‘concede’ is the best word that can be used.
- Every human being, after the first few days of his life, is a product of two factors: on the one hand, there is his __________ endowment; and on the other hand, there is the effect of environment, including _________
(a) constitutional, weather (b) congenital, education
(c) personal, climate (d) economic, learning
Answer: (b) There is a clear-cut contrast in the sentence which is clear from the presence of the phrases ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the other hand’. The word in the first blank has to be connected with something that is present at the time of birth – thus ‘congenital’. However, the “effect of the environment” qualifies ‘education’.
- It____ not look like a great deal today, but back then it was a coup: no man before ____ to import tea directly into Ireland.
(a) may, has dared (b) may, had dared
(c) might, have dared (d) might, have ever dared
Answer: (b) Sentence is given in two parts first one is given in the present tense and second part is given in the past tense. So options going against this are wrong. These options are (a), (c) and (d). In first blank ‘may’ fits well and in the second blank ‘had dared’ is grammatically right.
- The head ____ was annoyed to see a ____ in the soup.
(a) chief, house fly (b) chef, housefly
(c) chief, house-fly (d) chef, house fly
Answer: (b) Sentence is about seeing a fly in a soup. This is major concern to a chef. Hence, options (a) and (c) are rejected. The word housefly is not hyphenated and a space in between house and fly changes the meanings of the sentence.
- There is much difficulty _____ getting _____ this place and it is not possible to reach _____ without the grace of the lord.
(a) in, to, it (b) to, to, it
(c) to, in, it (d) in, in, in
Answer: (a) There is difficulty “IN” doing something reaching a place is getting to a place. “It” pronoun used for place.
- When you want to digitalise a city __________ with millions, you don’t bet __________ the odds.
(a) proceeding, into (b) teeming, against
(c) undergoing, adhere (d) dangling, for
Answer: (b) teeming, against
- The numbers __________ by the legitimate online music service providers indicate that a growing number of users are __________ to buy music.
(a) morphed, ignoring (b) labelled, thriving
(c) figured, fanatic (d) touted, willing
Answer: (d) touted, willing
- In India is __________ on protecting its resources, international business appears equally __________ to safeguard its profit.
(a) dreaded, fragile (b) stubborn, weak
(c) bent, determined (d) approaching, settled
Answer: (c) bent, determined
- Brands __________ decision-simplicity strategies make full use of available information to __________ where consumers are on the path of decisions making and direct them to the best market offers.
(a) diluting, divulge (b) tempting, maintain
(c) imputing, overdrive (d) pursuing, assess
Answer: (d) pursuing, assess
- Lack of financing options, __________ with HR and technological __________ , make small and medium enterprises sector the most vulnerable component of our economy.
(a) except, loophole (b) coupled, challenges
(c) armed, benefits (d) registered, strategies
Answer: (b) coupled, challenges
- The water transport project on the west coast is ____ to get a shot in the arm with a new plan in which the Road Development Corporation will build the infrastructure and ___ a private party to operate the service.
(a) scheduled, let (b) verge, permit
(c) set, sanctions (d) bound, task
Answer: (d) bound, task
- As the weekend finally rolled around the city folk were only ___ happy to settle down and laugh their cares _____.
(a) just, afar (b) too, away
(c) extremely, off (d) very, up
Answer: (a) just, afar