20 February 2025 · Shift 3

Adverb of manner An adverb of manner tells HOW an action is done, so it has to suit the verb it modifies. 'Violently' means with great destructive force; no one 'works violently' on a project, so the adverbial error lies in the segment 'violently worked'. The sense the sentence needs is steady, careful effort - 'worked diligently' (or 'worked hard'), with the manner adverb placed after the verb it describes. The segments 'Nicholas and', 'his team' and 'on the project' contain no adverb at all, so an adverbial error cannot lie in them. Hence option (d) is correct.

Noun choice in a blank The blank is a noun after 'a strong', and the sentence describes a trained man drawn towards serving farmers in his home state. 'Calling' is a strong inner urge to take up a particular line of work or service, so 'felt a strong calling towards uplifting the agricultural sector' says exactly that. 'Hobby' is a pastime pursued for pleasure - far too casual for a life mission, and 'a strong hobby' is not idiomatic English. 'Murmuring' (a low indistinct sound) and 'yelling' (shouting) name sounds, not motivations, so neither can follow 'felt a strong'. Hence option (b) is correct.

Cleft sentence with pronoun The sentence is a cleft of the pattern 'It is + X + who/that + verb', used to throw emphasis on X. X here is the doer of 'are responsible', so it fills a subject role and needs the subjective pronoun 'we', not the objective 'us'. The relative clause that follows must also carry a finite verb, so the full replacement has to be 'we who are responsible'. Option (a) 'we that responsible' has no verb; (b) keeps the objective 'us'; (d) deletes the pronoun and leaves the meaningless 'It is who are responsible'. Hence option (c) is correct.

Preposition 'along with' 'Along' by itself is a preposition of movement (walk along the road); it cannot introduce a person who accompanies someone. To show accompaniment English uses the two-word preposition 'along with', meaning 'in the company of', so the segment must read 'along with a few students'. 'No substitution' would keep the ungrammatical 'along a few students'; 'along of' is not English; 'along few students' repeats the same error and drops the article 'a' as well. Hence option (c) is correct.

Meaning of 'phenomenon' 'Phenomenon' (plural 'phenomena') means a fact, occurrence or event that can be observed, especially one whose cause is still being studied. That is precisely what a scientist does in a laboratory - observe something happening - so 'an observable fact or event' matches the word. The word has no connection with equations, animals or flowers, so (b), (c) and (d) are simply unrelated meanings. Hence option (a) is correct.

Idiomatic collocation A collocation is a word partnership fixed by usage, so only the exact wording of the idiom will do. 'Not everybody's cup of tea' is the fixed expression meaning 'not something that everyone likes or is able to do'. 'Cup of milk', 'cup of coffee' and 'mug of ice' are literal phrases; changing even one word of an idiom destroys it. Hence option (d) is correct.

Idiom meaning The idiom 'lick your wounds' comes from an injured animal that withdraws to a quiet place and licks its injuries until they heal. Applied to people it means to go away after a defeat or a bad experience and recover from it. For example: after losing the final, the team went home to lick their wounds. It is not about cursing (a), about getting ready for a fresh fight (b) or about asking others for help (d) - all three miss the idea of quiet, private recovery. Hence option (c) is correct.

Antonym in context 'Appease' means to calm an angry person by giving them what they want - which is exactly why the manager offers a free pizza. Its antonym must therefore mean 'to make angrier', and 'Inflame' means just that: to excite anger or strong feeling. 'Enrich' means to improve in quality or value, 'Foster' means to encourage growth, and 'Suppress' means to hold something down or stop it being expressed - none of these reverses the idea of pacifying. Hence option (b) is correct.

Spelling 'sedetion' is the misspelt word: the correct form is 'sedition', conduct or speech that incites rebellion against the state. Like 'ambition' and 'tradition', it ends in -ition, so the vowel before -tion is 'i', never 'e'. The other three are spelt correctly: 'sediment' (matter that settles at the bottom of a liquid), 'seduction' and 'sedition'. Hence option (a) is correct.

Collective nouns The underlined phrase must be replaced by a group name that uses the right collective noun and also explains why the deer are afraid. The collective noun for wolves is 'a pack', and wolves hunt deer, so 'a pack of wolves' is right in both form and sense. 'A school' is the group name for fish, which is why the original sentence is absurd - fish do not frighten deer. The other options each pair an animal with the wrong collective: hyenas go in a clan (a swarm is for insects), lions in a pride (not a herd), and buffaloes in a herd (a flock is for birds or sheep). Hence option (c) is correct.

Synonym 'Diligent' describes a person who works with steady care and persistent effort. 'Hardworking' carries that same idea of sustained, committed effort, so it is the synonym. 'Lazy' (unwilling to work) and 'Careless' (not giving due attention) are its opposites, and 'Unreliable' concerns trustworthiness rather than effort. Hence option (c) is correct.

Synonym 'Encumbrance' is a burden or obstruction that weighs a person down and holds progress back. 'Hurdle' is a barrier that must be got over, that is, an obstacle to progress - the same idea in everyday words. 'Incentive' and 'Impetus' are forces that drive progress forward, and a 'Catalyst' speeds a process up, so all three are the opposite of a hindrance. Hence option (d) is correct.

Spelling in a sentence The sentence has to be scanned word by word for the faulty spelling. 'incogruent' is wrong: the word is 'incongruent', meaning not in agreement or not consistent, and it keeps the 'n' of 'congruent'. The other three are spelt correctly: 'hypocrisy' (ending -crisy), 'vehement' (forceful, intense) and 'opposition'. Hence option (d) is correct.

Adverb of manner An adverb of manner must describe the action in a way that actually makes sense. 'Beautifully' means in a way that is pleasing to look at; a candidate does not approach a viva-voce podium 'beautifully', so the adverbial error is in 'Mr. Andrew beautifully'. The sense required is one of composure: 'Mr. Andrew confidently approached the podium for his Ph.D. viva voce.' The segments 'approached the', 'podium for his' and 'Ph.D. viva voce' contain no adverb, so they cannot hold an adverbial error. Hence option (c) is correct.

Antonym 'Inferior' means lower in rank, quality or position. Of the four options only 'Senior' reverses that idea - higher in rank, standing or position. 'Unfair' means unjust, 'Permit' means to allow, and 'Exterior' means the outer surface of something; none of them is about rank at all. Hence option (c) is correct.

Cloze: noun choice Blank (76) is a noun joined by 'and' to 'misunderstanding', so it must name another obstacle that surrounds the climate crisis. 'Denial' - a refusal to accept that something is true - pairs naturally with misunderstanding, and 'climate denial' is the standard term for exactly this attitude. It also explains the rest of the sentence: because people deny and misunderstand, education becomes 'fundamental to addressing the root causes'. 'Development', 'declaration' and 'demand' are neutral nouns that name no obstacle, so none of them gives the sentence its needed contrast. Hence option (c) is correct.

Cloze: adjective choice Blank (77) is an adjective qualifying 'climate education and engagement'. The problem has just been described as general and large in scale ('the amount of denial and misunderstanding'), so the remedy must reach a large area and many people: 'widespread'. 'Wholehearted' describes the enthusiasm of an effort, not its reach; 'wholesale' means in bulk or indiscriminate, normally of trade or destruction; 'wishful' means based on hope rather than fact. Hence option (d) is correct.

Cloze: preposition The fixed phrase is 'based on', which introduces the foundation that an idea rests upon. The structure confirms it: 'not only based ___ climate science but also ON the ways in which ...' - the correlative pair 'not only ... but also' joins two like phrases, and the second already uses 'on'. 'Based in' names a place of operation (a firm based in Delhi), while 'based by' and 'based at' are not English combinations. Hence option (b) is correct.

Cloze: relative pronoun The blank follows the preposition 'in' and opens a relative clause describing 'the ways'. Only 'which' can stand immediately after a preposition, giving the standard phrase 'the ways in which climate change is deeply intertwined ...'. 'That' can never follow a preposition, so 'in that' is impossible here; 'whose' shows possession and 'whom' refers to people, while 'the ways' is a thing. Hence option (b) is correct.

Cloze: verb choice The blank is the verb of the relative clause 'issues that ___ our daily life experiences'. 'Define' means to determine the essential character of something, so the social, racial and environmental issues are what shape our everyday experience. 'Deal' would need 'with' before an object, 'deceive' takes a person as its object, and 'decline' means to refuse or to grow worse - none of them fits 'our daily life experiences'. Hence option (c) is correct.