17 February 2025 · Shift 1

Missing finite verb Everything between the commas - 'which has all the details on parenting' - is a relative clause that only describes the book; it is not the main verb of the sentence. Take that clause out and what is left is 'The book … missing.', a subject with no finite verb at all. 'missing' here is only a participle; it needs a form of 'be' to work as the predicate, and the singular subject 'The book' in present time takes 'is'. So the segment becomes 'is missing': The book, which has all the details on parenting, is missing. 'No correction' fails because the printed sentence has no main verb, 'had been missing' pushes the loss into a completed past that nothing in the sentence supports, and 'had missing' is not a possible verb form.

Synonym in context In this sentence 'defended' means kept their sister safe from attack or blame - the brothers stood up for her every time. 'Protected' carries exactly that sense of shielding someone from harm, so it can replace the underlined word without changing the meaning. 'Invaded' means attacked, which is the opposite; 'condemned' means criticised strongly; 'united' only means joined together and says nothing about keeping her safe. Hence 'protected' is the correct synonym.

Spelling: -ible words The word is formed as ir- + resist + -ible: the negative prefix in- becomes ir- before r, which is why there is a double 'r' at the start. The root is 'resist', with a single 's' in the middle, and Latin roots of this kind take the ending -ible, not -able (compare 'permissible', 'responsible'). Putting the three parts together gives ir-resist-ible = irresistible. The sentence prints 'irressistible' with a doubled 's'; options (a) and (d) also drop the double 'r' and wrongly use -able, and (b) keeps the extra 's' and ends in -ibal.

Word meaning: streamline To 'streamline' a process means to make it simpler and quicker by cutting out the unnecessary steps. 'Simplifying' says the same thing, so the sentence reads: The new technology proved to be quite efficient in simplifying daily tasks. 'Sojourning' means staying somewhere for a short while, 'startling' means shocking, and 'stripling' is a noun meaning a young boy - none of them can describe what technology does to a task. Hence 'simplifying' is the correct substitute.

Antonym: abundant 'Abundant' means present in a very large quantity - more than enough of something. Its opposite must mean thinly spread or too little, and that is 'sparse'. The trap here is that the other three options all point the same way as the given word: 'plentiful', 'ample' and 'copious' each mean 'in large supply', so they are synonyms of 'abundant', not antonyms. Hence 'sparse' is the correct antonym.

Passive voice: agent 'by' The sentence is in the passive voice - 'The software was developed …' - and 'a team of experts' names who actually did the developing. In a passive sentence the doer of the action, called the agent, is introduced by the preposition 'by'. The second half of the same sentence already shows the pattern: 'tested by users'. So the segment becomes: The software was developed by a team of experts and tested by users before its release. 'in', 'across', 'at' and 'on' all mark place or surface, so they leave the passive sentence with no agent at all.

Spelling: insipid 'Insipid' means tasteless, and by extension so dull that it holds no interest - exactly what a speech that leaves everyone restless and bored would be. It is spelt in-sip-id: a single 'n', an 'i' after the 's', and no extra 'e' anywhere. The printed 'insipeed' adds 'ee'; (a) 'Insiepid' inserts an 'e', (b) 'Innsipid' doubles the 'n', and (c) 'Insepid' writes 'se' for 'si'. Hence 'Insipid' is the correctly spelt word.

Preposition after 'disappointed' After 'disappointed' the preposition must introduce the cause of the feeling, and for an event that caused it the standard choice is 'by'. So: The players were disappointed by the defeat of their team - the defeat is what produced the disappointment. 'above' is purely a preposition of position and can never link a feeling to its cause, which is why the printed sentence is wrong. 'around' is spatial too, and 'disappointed in' is used of a person who has let you down ('disappointed in him'), not of an event. 'over' belongs with disputes and prolonged worries ('a quarrel over money'), so it does not name the direct cause the way 'by' does.

Adverb modifies the verb A verb is modified by an adverb, never by an adjective - that is the rule this question tests. In sentence (c) the verb is 'analysed', so it needs the adverb 'carefully': The results were analysed carefully to ensure accuracy. The adjective 'careful' cannot do that job. The other three obey the rule: 'seamlessly' and 'barely' modify verbs in (a), 'more critically' is the correct comparative of the adverb 'critically' in (b), and in (d) 'incredibly' modifies the adverb 'hard'. Hence the adverbial error is in sentence (c).

Idiom: grass is greener The fixed English idiom is 'the grass is always greener on the other side': other people's situations always look better than your own, even when they are not. The first half of the item - 'Don't assume that everyone but you is happy' - states exactly that idea, so the distorted 'redder on one side' must be restored to 'greener on the other side'. The other options each break the idiom: (a) changes it into an unrelated saying about the sky, (c) replaces 'grass' with 'plant' and 'the other side' with 'all sides', and (d) changes both the plant and the colour. Only (b) keeps the comparison with other people that gives the idiom its meaning.

Adverb for a verb (segment error) Test each segment against a rule rather than against how it sounds. Segment (A) reads 'She quick finished her homework'. 'finished' is a verb, and a verb takes an adverb, so the adjective 'quick' is wrong here - it must be 'quickly'. Corrected: She quickly finished her homework before dinner, eager to join her friends at the park for an exciting game of soccer. (B) is sound: 'eager to join her friends' is a correct adjective phrase describing 'She'. (C) and (D) use their prepositions correctly - 'at the park' for place and 'for an exciting game of soccer' for purpose. Hence the error lies in segment A.

Idiom: the bright side 'Look on the bright side' is a fixed expression meaning to see the hopeful, encouraging part of a difficult situation. The clause 'no matter how tough things get' tells us she stays positive even in hard times, so the blank needs the positive word 'bright'. 'negative' and 'dark' say the opposite of what the second half of the sentence establishes, and 'the neutral side of life' is not an English expression at all. Hence 'bright' is the most appropriate word.

Antonym: obscene 'Obscene' describes something indecent and offensive, especially in a vulgar or sexual way. Its opposite must describe behaviour that is proper and inoffensive, and that word is 'decent'. 'Improper' means much the same as 'obscene' rather than the reverse, so it is a synonym trap; 'hilarious' (very funny) and 'mean' (unkind) do not lie on the decency scale at all. Hence 'Decent' is the correct antonym.

Antonym: vigilant 'Vigilant' means keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulty. The opposite of watchful attention is failing to give it, that is 'careless'. 'Awake' and 'mindful' both point the same way as 'vigilant' - alert and attentive - so they are near-synonyms, and 'choosy' means fussy in making choices, which is unrelated to watchfulness. Hence 'Careless' is the correct antonym.

Collocation: make a noise A collocation is a verb-noun pair that English fixes by usage, and 'noise' pairs with 'make': make a noise, make a sound, make a fuss. So the sentence reads: He tends to make a lot of noise when he's working. 'have', 'give' and 'get' are all common verbs elsewhere - have a bath, give a speech, get a chance - but none of them collocates with 'noise'. Hence 'make' best completes the sentence.

Cloze: pointing to an example The blank stands between a general group, 'many healthcare workers', and one member of that group, 'nurses'. What is needed is a word that singles out a particular example from a larger set, and that is 'especially'. The line then reads: For many healthcare workers, especially nurses, longer hours and shift work are the norm. 'equally' would compare two things already named, 'ascetically' means in a severely self-denying way, and 'fanatically' means with extreme zeal - none of the three can introduce an example.

Cloze: adverb of frequency The same sentence goes on to say that nurses 'may have to work for six or seven consecutive days', so the passage is describing something that happens a great deal. 'Often' gives that frequent sense: Nurses are often expected to work on public holidays. 'rarely', 'hardly' and 'seldom' all mean 'almost never', which would contradict the picture of long hours and shift work the paragraph has just built. Hence 'often' fits blank (77).

Cloze: consecutive days The blank describes the 'six or seven ____ days' worked before a break is allowed. The contrast drawn in the same sentence - 'instead of the standard five days on, two days off' - shows that these days come one after another without a gap. 'Consecutive' means exactly that, following in unbroken order: six or seven consecutive days. 'consensus' (general agreement) and 'continent' are nouns and cannot describe days, and 'conjunctional' relates to grammatical conjunctions, not to a run of working days.

Cloze: verb after the subject The subject of this clause is 'many healthcare services, such as hospitals and aged care facilities', and the blank must be the verb that takes 'staffing seven days a week' as its object. A hospital or an aged care facility cannot close for the weekend, so what it does with seven-day staffing is need it: such services require staffing seven days a week. 'rectify' means to put right, 'pacify' means to calm someone down, and 'specify' means to state something exactly - none of these describes a service's relation to its staffing. Hence 'require' fits blank (79).

Cloze: ensure something happens The phrase is 'any restructured work arrangements are designed to ____ continuous, adequate staffing', so the blank needs a verb meaning to guarantee that something will happen. 'Ensure' means exactly to make certain of an outcome: arrangements designed to ensure continuous, adequate staffing. 'treat' and 'animate' cannot take 'staffing' as an object at all, and 'scrutinise' means to examine closely - inspecting the staffing is not the same as guaranteeing it. Hence 'ensure' fits blank (80).