17 February 2025 · Shift 3

Adverb form and placement The word that tells us when someone arrived must be an adverb, so 'recently' is needed and not the adjective 'recent' - that rules out option (b). 'Arrive' takes no preposition before such an adverb, so 'arrived with recently' in (a) and 'arrived on recently' in (d) are both ungrammatical. In the present perfect an adverb of indefinite time sits between the auxiliary 'have' and the past participle: have + recently + arrived. Hence the correct option is (c), 'They have recently arrived.'

Synonym 'Cumbersome' describes a thing so large, heavy or clumsy that it is hard to carry or handle. 'Heavy' shares that core idea of great weight, so it is the closest synonym. 'Royal' relates to kings and queens, 'fickle' means changing one's mind often, and 'new' means recently made - none of them touches weight or awkwardness. Hence the correct option is (b).

Spelling error Check the key word of each segment against its standard spelling. 'sofisticated' is wrong: the word is spelt 'sophisticated', with 'ph' for the /f/ sound, from Greek 'sophos' meaning wise. The other three segments are clean - 'marathon', 'definitely' and 'virtuous' are all correctly spelt. Hence the segment with the spelling error is (d), 'had a sofisticated taste'.

Synonym 'Capture' means to take a person or thing by force and bring it under one's control. 'Arrest' means to seize someone and take them into custody, which is exactly that act of taking control - so it is the synonym. 'Release' is the opposite, 'attain' means to achieve something by effort with no idea of seizing, and 'shorten' is unrelated. Hence the correct option is (d).

Correct spelling The sentence needs the word meaning 'as much as is needed', whose correct spelling is 'sufficient'. Fix it in two steps: a double 'f' after 'su-', then the ending '-cient', in which 'ci' carries the /sh/ sound (as in 'efficient', 'ancient', 'proficient'). 'suffishient' and 'suffeeciant' spell that sound with 'sh' and 'ee', while 'sufficeint' reverses the 'ie' of '-cient'. Hence the correct option is (b).

Collocation A collocation is a pair of words that habitually go together; here we need the verb English regularly uses with the noun 'objections'. The fixed collocation is 'raise an objection / raise objections', meaning to state one's disagreement formally. 'Spelt', 'stood' and 'spread' never combine with 'objections' - one spells a word, stands a chance and spreads news. Hence the correct option is (c).

Contextual vocabulary The relative clause 'which dates back to the 18th century' fixes the age of the architecture: it is old. 'Classical' describes the traditional style of an earlier age, so it agrees with that time reference. 'Modern' and 'futuristic' both point to the present or the future and directly contradict 'dates back'. 'Dystopic' describes an imagined society in a frightening state; it names no period or style of architecture at all. Hence the correct option is (a).

Passive voice The subject 'A lot of olive oil' does not do the producing - it is the thing produced, so the verb must be passive. The passive of the simple present is is/are + past participle; 'is' is already there, so the blank needs the third form of 'produce', that is 'produced'. 'Produce' and 'producing' would give the active 'is produce' and 'is producing', and 'production' is a noun, not a verb form. Hence the correct option is (d).

Question tag The underlined part is a clumsy repetition of the whole clause; English replaces such a repetition with a question tag. Rule: a positive statement takes a negative tag, and the tag repeats the auxiliary verb of the statement in the same tense. The statement 'I had told you' is positive and its auxiliary is 'had', so the tag must be 'hadn't I?'. 'didn't I?' and 'did I?' import the auxiliary 'do', which the sentence never used, and 'had I?' is a positive tag after a positive statement. Hence the correct option is (d).

Idiom meaning 'A piece of cake' is an idiom, so its meaning cannot be worked out from 'piece' and 'cake' separately. It means something very easy to do - a task easily accomplished. The sentence itself supports this: the make-over was easy 'because she's so naturally beautiful'. The other three options read the phrase literally as an item of food and miss the idiom. Hence the correct option is (c).

Synonym 'Serene' means calm, peaceful and untroubled. 'Calm' carries the same sense of freedom from disturbance, so it is the synonym. 'Agitated', 'chaotic' and 'disturbed' all describe the opposite state - unrest, confusion and anxiety. Hence the correct option is (a).

Antonym 'Impoverished' means made extremely poor, stripped of wealth and resources. Its antonym must express plenty of wealth, and 'rich' does exactly that. 'Shy', 'humble' and 'tiny' describe temperament or size, not wealth, so none of them reverses poverty. Hence the correct option is (b).

Relative pronoun The antecedent of the relative pronoun is 'a talented artist', a person, and 'which' is used only for things and animals. For a human antecedent the subject relative pronoun is 'who': 'a talented artist who paints beautiful landscapes'. 'Whatever' and 'whichever' are not relative pronouns for people, and (d) also drops the noun 'landscapes', leaving 'beautiful' hanging. 'That' in option (a) can follow a person only in an informal identifying clause; here the clause merely describes a person already identified, so the formal 'who' is required. Hence the correct option is (c).

Antonym As a noun 'muddle' means a state of confusion and disorder. The word naming the opposite state - things properly arranged - is 'order'. 'Expand', 'assume' and 'linger' concern size, belief and delay; none of them is the reverse of confusion. Hence the correct option is (b).

Adverb usage error An adverb must suit the action it modifies, so test each segment's adverb against its verb. 'Swiftly' means quickly, but waiting for one's turn is not something done quickly - the adverb contradicts the verb it modifies. The sense the sentence needs is 'Margaret eagerly waited' or 'patiently waited', so the faulty segment is the first one. The other three segments carry no adverb at all - 'waited for', 'her turn' and 'at the Cineplex' are a verb phrase, an object and a phrase of place. Hence the correct option is (d).

Cloze: past participle 'a phenomenon primarily ___ by human activities' is a reduced relative clause standing for 'which is primarily caused by human activities'. In such a reduction only the past participle of the verb survives, and the 'by' phrase names the agent. The third form of 'cause' is 'caused', so that is what the blank takes. 'Cause' and 'causes' are finite forms that would need a subject of their own, and 'causing' would make global warming the doer, reversing the sense. Hence the correct option is (c).

Cloze: present perfect The auxiliary 'has' already stands before the blank, so the sentence is in the present perfect. Present perfect = has/have + past participle, and the third form of 'bring' is 'brought'. 'Bring' and 'brings' are the first form and the present-tense form, and 'bringing' would need 'has been' to be grammatical. Hence the correct option is (c).

Cloze: subject-verb agreement Find the head of the subject: in 'The increase in greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide', the head noun is 'the increase', which is singular. The passage is stating a general scientific fact, so the tense is the simple present. A singular subject in the simple present takes the -s form of the verb: 'allows'. The pattern is allow + object + to-infinitive - 'allows the Earth's atmosphere to trap more heat' - which shows that a finite verb is needed, so 'allowing' cannot fit. Hence the correct option is (a).

Cloze: subject-verb agreement The clause is 'As a result, glaciers ___ ': it states a present, continuing consequence of global warming, so the simple present is used. 'Glaciers' is a plural subject, and in the simple present a plural subject takes the base form without -s: 'retreat'. The parallel clause that follows, 'sea levels rise', is in the same simple present, which confirms the tense. 'Retreats' is the singular form, 'retreated' pushes the fact into the past, and 'retreating' is not a finite verb and has no auxiliary here to support it. Hence the correct option is (d).

Cloze: subject-verb agreement The blank continues the same list of present consequences: 'glaciers retreat, sea levels ___'. 'Sea levels' is plural, so the simple present verb keeps its base form: 'rise'. 'Rising' has no auxiliary to support it, 'risen' is the past participle and would need 'have', and 'rose' would push the statement into the past, breaking the parallel with 'retreat'. Hence the correct option is (a).