13 February 2025 · Shift 2

Collocation with adverb The blank stands just before the participle 'respected', so it needs an adverb of degree that English habitually pairs with that word. The fixed collocation is 'highly respected' - said of a person whom many people admire and look up to. 'Closely' goes with 'related' or 'watched', 'sensibly' with 'dressed' or 'behaved', and 'seriously' with 'ill' or 'injured'; none of them collocates with 'respected'. Hence, the correct option is (b) 'highly'.

Synonym 'Colossal' means extremely large - enormous in size, extent or degree. Among the options only 'Massive' carries that sense of great size and bulk, so it is the synonym. 'Miniature', 'Petite' and 'Diminutive' all mean very small, so each of them is an antonym of 'colossal', not a synonym. Hence, the correct option is (d) 'Massive'.

Synonym in context In this sentence 'devote' means to give one's time and energy fully to something - Puja is giving more of her time to volunteering. 'Dedicate' carries exactly that meaning: to set apart and give oneself wholly to a purpose. 'Plan' is only to arrange something beforehand, 'Divide' is to split into parts, and 'Waste' is to use pointlessly - none of these fits 'devote more time to volunteering'. Hence, the correct option is (d) 'Dedicate'.

Antonym 'Everlasting' means lasting for ever, that is, having no end in time. Its opposite must express a very short duration, and 'Momentary' means lasting only for a moment. 'Fantabulous' (wonderful), 'Tampered' (interfered with) and 'Calibrating' (adjusting to a standard) say nothing at all about duration, so none of them can be the opposite of 'everlasting'. Hence, the correct option is (a) 'Momentary'.

Confusable words The sentence describes an ethnographer's fieldwork, so the blank needs an adjective from the vocabulary of anthropology that can describe an 'approach'. Anthropology contrasts two standpoints: the emic - the insider's own account of a culture - and the etic, the outside observer's analytical account of it. An etic approach lets the researcher collect 'rich data' in his own categories, and it is exactly that outsider stance which raises the ethical worry about 'cultural appropriation'. 'Emit' is a verb meaning to give out, 'emetic' means causing vomiting, and 'empathetic' describes a person's feeling rather than a named research standpoint; they only look and sound like the answer. Hence, the correct option is (d) 'etic'.

Degrees of comparison The sentence measures today's sea level against every earlier level - 'higher than ever before' - so the whole comparison must stand in the comparative degree. Two adverbs joined by 'and' must be of the same degree; since 'higher' is comparative, 'fast' has to become 'faster'. The corrected segment therefore reads 'is rising faster and higher than'. (a) mixes the superlative 'fastest' with the comparative 'higher'; (c) 'is rise' is not a possible verb form; and (d) shifts to the past 'was rising' although the level is rising now, besides leaving 'high' uncompared. Hence, the correct option is (b).

Error spotting: enough Test each part on its own. 'The trunk' and 'that she brought yesterday' are both perfectly correct. The third part, 'is not big much to lift', misuses 'much'. Sufficiency after an adjective is shown by 'enough', and 'enough' is placed after the adjective it modifies. The corrected part therefore reads 'is not big enough to lift'. Hence, the part that contains the error is option (b) 'is not big much to lift'.

Phrase substitution 'Pivotal' means of central importance, i.e. essential; and 'advancing' here means taking something forward, furthering it. So 'pivotal in advancing our understanding' is the same as 'essential in furthering our understanding' - the meaning of the sentence is left untouched. The other three reverse that sense: 'irrelevant to stalling', 'minor in restricting' and 'inconsequential to hindering' each make the research unimportant or make it hold understanding back. Hence, the correct option is (d) 'essential in furthering'.

Position of adverb 'Nearby' is an adverb of place, and an adverb of place stands after the verb or after the noun it qualifies - never in front of a past participle. Option (b) has 'that was nearby situated', where the adverb has been pushed before 'situated'; it should read 'that was situated nearby'. In (a) and (c) 'nearby' correctly follows the noun 'restaurant', and in (d) 'near' is a preposition governing 'her best friend' house', not an adverb at all. Hence, the option with the incorrect use of the adverb is (b).

Spelling 'Affected', 'Exposure' and 'Charity' are all spelt correctly. 'Fissible' is the wrong spelling: the adjective meaning 'able to be split, especially by nuclear fission' is spelt 'fissile' - double 's', then '-ile', with no 'b' in it. Hence, the incorrectly spelt word is option (a) 'Fissible'.

Spelling 'Idiotic', 'Proceed' and 'Anxiety' are all spelt correctly. 'Recieve' breaks the well-known rule 'i before e, except after c': immediately after the letter 'c' the order is 'ei', so the word is spelt 'Receive'. Hence, the incorrectly spelt word is option (d) 'Recieve'.

Idiom meaning The idiom 'out of the blue' means happening all of a sudden and without any warning - completely unexpected. The image behind it is a bolt of lightning falling from a clear blue sky, where no one expects it. E.g. 'The news of his promotion came out of the blue and took everyone by surprise.' Hence, the correct option is (a) 'Completely unexpected'.

Synonym 'Competent' means having the skill and the knowledge needed to do something well. 'Skilled' says exactly that - trained and able at a task - so it is the synonym. 'Gracious' (kind and polite), 'Ambitious' (eager for success) and 'Humble' (modest) all describe temperament, not ability. Hence, the correct option is (a) 'Skilled'.

Cause connectives The blank is followed by the noun phrase 'the unexpected power outage', not by a subject + verb clause. 'Due to' is a prepositional phrase and takes a noun phrase after it, so 'postponed due to the unexpected power outage' is correct. 'Since' and 'because' are conjunctions and would need a full clause after them ('because there was an unexpected power outage'). 'For' after 'postponed' would state a stretch of time ('postponed for two hours'), not a cause. Hence, the correct option is (c) 'due to'.

Synonym in context The blank has to be filled with a synonym of the underlined word 'gullet'. The 'gullet' is the throat - the food passage that runs from the mouth down towards the stomach - which is exactly the place where a bone would get stuck. 'Chest', 'molars' (the broad grinding teeth at the back) and 'stomach' name other parts of the body, and none of them is a synonym of 'gullet'. Hence, the correct option is (a) 'throat'.

Cloze: present perfect The blank comes straight after the auxiliary 'has', so the clause is in the present perfect tense. The present perfect is formed as has/have + past participle, and the past participle of 'lead' is 'led'. 'Leads' and 'lead' are finite present forms and 'leading' is the -ing form; none of the three can follow 'has'. Hence, the correct option is (a) 'led'.

Cloze: simple past The subject is 'The invention of the Internet' - a completed event of the past - and the blank is the main verb of that clause. The paragraph narrates that event as finished, so the simple past 'catalysed' (sparked, set in motion) is required: 'the invention of the Internet catalysed a global revolution'. 'Catalyses' would turn it into a present habit, 'catalyse' does not agree with the singular subject 'invention', and 'catalysing' is non-finite and would leave the clause without a verb. Hence, the correct option is (d) 'catalysed'.

Cloze: verb form The subject here is the plural 'Innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning', and the blank is the main verb of the sentence. 'Promotes' is the singular present form, so it cannot agree with a plural subject, and 'promoting' is non-finite - it would leave the sentence with no main verb at all. That leaves 'promoted' and 'promote'. The paragraph is still recounting what technology has already achieved ('has led', 'catalysed') and only turns to the present in its last sentence with 'continues'. So the simple past keeps the tense of the surrounding narration: 'Innovations ... promoted automation and efficiency'. Hence, the correct option is (c) 'promoted'.

Cloze: subject-verb agreement 'As technology ___ to evolve' states something that is generally true, so the simple present tense is used. 'Technology' is a singular uncountable noun, and a singular subject takes the -s form of the verb, giving 'continues'. 'Continue' does not agree with a singular subject, 'continued' would push a still-running process into the past, and 'continuing' is non-finite. Hence, the correct option is (b) 'continues'.

Cloze: subject-verb agreement The subject of this blank is 'ethical and social implications', which is plural. The clause runs parallel with 'As technology continues to evolve', so it stays in the simple present; the plural present form carries no -s, giving 'deserve'. 'Deserves' is the singular form, 'deserved' would place a need that still exists in the past, and 'deserving' cannot stand as the main verb by itself. Hence, the correct option is (b) 'deserve'.