20 February 2025 · Shift 2

Synonyms in context 'Succinct' describes something said clearly in very few words, so its synonym must carry the idea of shortness. A succinct summary is one that conveys the whole meeting in a few words, and 'Brief' means exactly that - short in length. 'Detailed' and 'Lengthy' state the opposite quality, and 'Complicated' talks about difficulty, not length. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Adjective-noun collocation The blank stands immediately before the noun 'obedience', so only an adjective can fill it. 'Instant' is an adjective meaning happening at once, and 'instant obedience' is the fixed collocation used of soldiers who obey an order the moment it is given. 'Suddenly' is an adverb, 'fastly' is not an English word at all, and 'hurry' is a noun or verb - none of them can modify a noun. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Idiom substitution The underlined part says the car was a possession of no use to its owner, so we need an idiom that means exactly that. 'A white elephant' is a possession that is useless or troublesome and costs more to keep than it is worth - precisely why Mr. Saxena sold the car. 'In the doldrums' means dull or depressed, 'a gift of the gab' means a talent for speaking, and 'bite the bullet' means to face something unpleasant bravely; none of these describes a useless possession. Hence, option (c) is correct.

Synonyms 'Frantic' means wild with worry, fear or hurry - a person out of control because of anxiety. 'Distraught' means deeply upset and agitated, which is the same disturbed state of mind, so it is the synonym. 'Magnanimous' (generous), 'Quaint' (charmingly old-fashioned) and 'Kinetic' (relating to motion) have nothing to do with distress. Hence, option (a) is correct.

Word meaning 'Bright' means giving out or filled with a lot of light. 'Radiant' means shining or glowing brightly, so it carries the same meaning of light. 'Unlit' is its opposite, 'Immense' refers to size and 'Hooked' means strongly attracted to something - none of these is about light. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Adjective vs adverb A word that tells us how an action was performed must be an adverb, not an adjective. In 'She danced happy', the word describes the manner of dancing, so it has to be the adverb 'happily' - 'happy' is an adjective and can only describe a noun. The other two parts are sound: 'on the stage' is a correct prepositional phrase and 'in the competition held last evening' correctly uses the past participle 'held' to describe the competition. The corrected sentence reads: She danced happily on the stage in the competition held last evening. Hence, the error lies in part (b).

Filling multiple blanks Fix the blank you are surest of first. Blank (3) follows 'the panel of', and a panel is a body of people, so only 'judges' can go there. That leaves 'innovative' and 'efficient' for the first two blanks. Blank (1) describes the project itself, and a project that 'featured modern technology' is best called 'innovative'. Blank (2) describes 'processes'; processes that save time and effort are 'efficient'. So the order is (1) innovative, (2) efficient, (3) judges. Hence, option (d) is correct.

Article before superlative A superlative degree points to one particular thing out of all others, so it is preceded by the definite article 'the'. 'Best' is the superlative of 'good', so the sentence must read 'Which route is the best for avoiding traffic?' 'A' and 'an' are indefinite articles and cannot go with a superlative, and leaving the blank empty would break the rule. Hence, option (a) is correct.

Spelling correction The underlined word is misspelt: it drops the 'd' that the word actually carries. The noun is formed from 'knowledge', which keeps the whole word 'know' and then adds '-ledge' - k-n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e. 'Knowledege', 'knowlage' and 'knowladge' all distort that ending and are not words. Hence, option (a) is correct.

Subject-verb agreement Find the real subject first. The subject is 'The data'; 'from the latest studies' is only a prepositional phrase and can never decide the number of the verb. In modern usage 'data' is treated as an uncountable mass noun meaning 'information', and an uncountable noun takes a singular verb. Here the sentence reports one overall finding drawn from the studies, so the singular 'shows' is required. 'Are being show' is not a possible verb form at all, and 'show' / 'have been showing' would be needed only if 'data' were being counted as separate individual facts. Hence, option (d) is correct.

Idiom for advantage The underlined segment says the father held the most powerful position of all in his constituency, so we need an idiom meaning dominance over others. 'To get upper hand' means to gain control or a position of advantage over everyone else, which is exactly the strongest position described. 'To go to the dogs' means to fall into ruin - the opposite of holding power - and 'to be at one's wit' (wit's end) means to be helpless and out of ideas. 'To be at hem of' is not an established idiom for dominance and does not fit the sentence. Hence, option (c) is correct.

Incorrect spelling 'Anomaly', 'Consistent' and 'Fright' are all spelt correctly, so the odd one out must be the first option. The word meaning dishonesty is spelt 'Deceit' - after the letter 'c' the order is 'ei', not 'ie'. The printed form 'Deciet' reverses those two letters, so it is the incorrectly spelt word. Hence, option (a) is correct.

Antonyms in context 'Boldness' is the courage to face risk and new challenges without fear. Its opposite must be a lack of that courage, and 'Timidity' means exactly that - nervousness and want of confidence. 'Confidence' is a near synonym, 'Correctness' is unrelated to courage, and 'Recklessness' is an excess of boldness, not its absence - an excess is never an antonym. Hence, option (a) is correct.

Placement of adverbs An adverb of degree such as 'almost', 'certainly' or 'completely' is placed between the auxiliary verb and the main verb - 'had almost forgotten', 'had certainly forgotten', 'had completely forgotten'. Options (a), (b) and (c) all follow that pattern correctly. Option (d) puts 'complete' before the auxiliary 'had', and 'complete' is an adjective in the first place; it should be the adverb 'completely' standing after 'had'. The corrected sentence is: Larry had completely forgotten about the meeting. Hence, option (d) is correct.

Antonyms 'Exculpate' means to declare a person free from blame or guilt. Its opposite must declare the person guilty, and 'Condemn' means exactly that - to pronounce someone guilty and strongly disapprove of them. 'Absolve' and 'Vindicate' both mean to clear of blame, so they are synonyms of exculpate, not antonyms. 'Condone' is the tempting choice, but it means to overlook or excuse an offence - it still lets the wrongdoer off, so it sides with exculpate rather than against it. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Preposition in cloze The blank links 'this long procession' to what the procession was made up of. The preposition 'of' is used to say what a group or whole consists of, so 'a procession of silent men and women' is the natural phrase. 'In', 'to' and 'for' express place, direction and purpose respectively, and none of them can show composition here. Hence, option (d) is correct.

Verb tense in cloze The blank is the main verb of the clause 'Even he ___ a load of two baskets', and the clause has no auxiliary before it. The whole passage narrates a past scene - 'was a little wizened old man', 'he kept', 'there seemed to be' - so the verb must be in the simple past. 'Carried' is the past form and fits the singular subject 'he'. 'Carrying' needs a helping verb, 'carries' is present tense, and 'carry' cannot go with the singular 'he'. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Adverb of place in cloze The blank opens the sentence '___ he kept a folded quilt and a cauldron', and the previous sentence has just mentioned the two baskets. So the blank must point back to that place, and 'There' is the adverb of place that does this - There he kept a folded quilt and a cauldron. 'That' and 'This' are demonstratives and would need a noun after them, and 'Than' is used only for comparison. Hence, option (d) is correct.

Adverb of degree in cloze The blank stands before the adjective 'ragged', so it needs an adverb of degree that tells us how ragged the quilt was. 'Extremely' means to a very high degree, and 'extremely ragged and patched, but still clean' gives the intended contrast - the quilt was as worn as it could be, yet clean. 'Frankly', 'eagerly' and 'abruptly' describe manner, not degree, and none of them can sensibly describe the condition of a quilt. Hence, option (b) is correct.

Pronoun in cloze The blank follows the preposition 'with', and a pronoun after a preposition must be in the objective case. The person spoken about is the little wizened old man, so the masculine objective pronoun 'him' is needed - There was no one with him. 'His' is possessive and 'her' is feminine, while 'its' is used for things, not people. Hence, option (a) is correct.