English Grammar: questions and answers

Correct answer: D) whose

"Whose" is right. The gap needs a possessive relative pronoun that links "brothers" back to Rashed: two of his brothers. "Them" would create a second main clause without a conjunction, and "which" or "whom" cannot show possession. So the clause reads "two of whose brothers attend primary school".

Correct answer: A) Witch

"Witch" is the feminine of "wizard" in the traditional gender pairs taught for exams. "Sorceress" pairs with "sorcerer", "magician" is used for any gender, and "treachery" is a noun meaning betrayal, unrelated to the word.

Correct answer: B) I have a decent house to live in.

"I have a decent house to live in" is correct. "Live" is intransitive, so when its object (house) comes before it, the preposition must stay: you live in a house. Options A and D drop "in", and C uses "a" with the plural "houses".

Correct answer: A) to

"To" is correct. "Assign" takes "to" before the person who receives the task: assign a task to someone. "For" would name the purpose, not the receiver, and "at" or "with" do not combine with "assign" this way.

Correct answer: B) Beautiful

"Beautiful" describes a noun, as in "a beautiful garden", so it is the adjective. "Beauty" and "beautification" name things, so they are nouns. "Beautifying" is the -ing form of the verb "beautify". The ending "-ful" often marks adjectives: careful, useful, hopeful.

Correct answer: A) finishing

"Finishing" is right. The comparison "as much ... as" must join two items of the same form. The subject "writing a beautiful sonnet" is a gerund phrase, so the second item must also be a gerund: "as much an achievement as finishing a 400-page novel".

Correct answer: C) Why, to, of

"Why, to, of". The full sentence is "Why is it difficult to dispose of waste?" "Why" opens a question about reason, "difficult" is followed by a to-infinitive, and "dispose" needs "of" when it means to get rid of something.

Correct answer: D) dyed

"Dyed". To dye hair or cloth is to change its colour with a colouring substance, and English says "dye something a shade". "Colored her hair" is also heard in American usage, but "dyed" is the standard pairing for hair and the expected answer.

Correct answer: D) a conjunction

A conjunction. "But" joins two clauses, "he could not win" and "(he) learnt a lot", and shows a contrast between them. It does not describe a verb (adverb), name an action (verb), or describe a noun (adjective).

Correct answer: B) was writing

"Was writing". The writing was already in progress when the Principal came in, and an ongoing past action interrupted by another takes the past continuous. "Wrote" would suggest the student started writing after the entry. The present forms do not match "entered".

Correct answer: C) The

"The". Earth is unique: there is only one, so it takes the definite article, like "the sun" and "the moon". "A" and "an" mean one of many, which does not fit. "Noun" is not an article at all.

Correct answer: B) have

The error is "have". "Who" takes its number from "anyone", which is singular, so the verb must be "has": "Anyone who has an interest in finance can study this course." The other parts are correct.

Correct answer: C) had left

"Had left" is right. Two past actions are compared: the father's leaving happened first, and my coming happened later. The earlier one takes the past perfect (had + past participle), the later one stays in simple past ("came"). "Will leave" is future, and "would be leaving" or "had been leaving" do not show a finished earlier action.

Correct answer: B) discovered

"Discovered". The event happened at a finished point in the past (1492), so the simple past is used. "Discovers" is present, "had discovered" needs a second past event to come before, and "has had discovered" is not a valid tense.

Correct answer: B) Neither the Chairman nor the members were present.

B is correct. With "neither ... nor", the verb agrees with the subject closest to it. Here that is "the members", which is plural, so the verb is "were". "Was" and "is" would only fit if the nearer subject were singular, as in "Neither the members nor the Chairman was present." "Has present" is not grammatical at all.