English Questions: Fill in the Blanks 119

Direction (1-10): In each question below a sentence is given with two blanks in each. Each question is followed by four options with two words in each. You have to select that option as your answer which can fill both the blanks of the sentence.

1. Who should teach children about sex? The education secretary, Damian Hinds, must be ___________ for attention. This week of all weeks, he has taken the government into battle with Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups, probably half the Conservative party and 100,000 petitioners to parliament. Hinds wants instruction in LGBT “sensitivity and inclusiveness” to be “integral throughout the programme of study”, including in primary schools. He wants to ___________ and expand “relationships education” through all schools, and to end a parent’s right to withdraw a child from sex education once he or she reaches 15.
   wretched, repair
   desperate, reform
   desolate, emend
   vehement, regenerate
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

2. The hope must be that criminal justice will one day close in on Syria’s murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad, his henchmen and his ___________ . And on that front, there’s been some good news recently: the arrests in Germany and France of three Syrian intelligence officials ___________ of torture were groundbreaking. This came on top of the issuance of warrants and the filing of dozens of criminal complaints in a number of European countries, including Sweden and Austria.
   perspective, covert
   considerations, startling
   facilitators, believed
   enablers, suspected
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

3. Bare-faced and clad in jeans, clutching a rather uncertain-looking black toddler on her hip, Stacey Dooley stands beaming in the dust of a parched African landscape. At first glance you could mistake it for a gap year snapshot, destined to be ___________ somewhere in a student bedroom. Dooley is, of course, one of the breakout stars of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, and the picture was taken in Uganda, where she is making a film for the upcoming Comic Relief. Yet as with so many gap year experiences, it isn’t entirely easy to tell who is having the more emotionally rewarding time here: the volunteer who feels ___________ to have seen what they’ve seen, or the children they’re actually supposed to be helping.
   clipped apart, inclusive
   parted out, destitute
   pinned up, privileged
   cleave, depressed
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

4. Shortly before November’s midterm elections I interviewed a Donald Trump supporter, coming out of a debate between three local candidates in a ___________ race, asking how she felt about the president’s attitude to women. “I need to see the facts and the actual documentation,” she said. “I can’t just do all this ___________ .”
   aldermanic, experience
   bicameral, evidence
   congressional, hearsay
   senatorial, occurrence
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

5. National myths play a central role in the story of a country, and the UK is no exception. Over the centuries, we Britons have come to believe that we are naturally ___________ – exceptional, even – in certain pursuits. These include engineering, literature, the classics, pop music, geography and football. As the country that gave the world Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Beatles, and the beautiful game, perhaps we have a point. To be British, we understand, is to ___________ in these areas, and this tacit understanding powers us on to ever greater achievements.
   clumsy, flunk
   proficient, excel
   amateur, recede
   maladroit, fizzle
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

6. Although this gave Buhari 56% of the total votes cast, in a country with a population of close to 200 million, including more than 84 million ___________ voters, 15.2 million votes hardly qualifies as a huge mandate. The 35% voter turnout was down from 44% in the 2015 presidential election and way down from the 54% turnout in 2011. In fact, ___________ for Nigerian presidential elections has been dropping at an alarmingly consistent rate since 2003.
   registered, turnout
   logged, resource
   registration, departure
   inventoried, cause
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

7. They say you can get used to anything in time, but I am not sure that is true. Some things in life, such as the loss of a loved one, we must find the courage to accept. Others, like ___________ and exploitation, we must find the courage to fight. Two weeks ago, I lost my dear son, Hadi, to leukaemia at 12 and somehow my family and I must find a way to ___________ and carry on, though I doubt we will ever get over it.
   acceptance, weep
   tolerance, mourn
   discrimination, grieve
   insanity, distress
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

8. I don’t often ___________ when I go to the theatre. I certainly don’t often have to dig my fingernails into my palm in order to keep my feelings under control, but that is what happened during a performance of Christina Murdock’s one woman play Dangerous Giant Animals – next on at The Vaults in London between 3 and 6 March. Described as “a darkly comedic show about finding your voice amid your sister’s screams”, it ___________ the story of Christina’s San Francisco childhood with her younger sister, who has Atypical Rett syndrome, speech apraxia and severe epilepsy.
   cry, tells
   wail, listens
   bawl, misunderstands
   bellow, withholds
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

9. The problem with recommending good options for Labour on Brexit, with regards to their electoral prospects, is that none exist. Here is a party whose members and existing voters supported ___________ , but which cannot win a general election without leave voters. The only six seats lost by Labour in 2017 heavily opted for Brexit in the referendum, such as the ex-mining community of Mansfield and post-industrial Stoke-on-Trent South. And 41 of the top 54 Tory-held target seats – without which Labour cannot form a majority – voted leave. As long as Brexit dominates and defines political debate, Labour will suffer. Its popular domestic policies are ___________.
   continue, careered
   remain, sidelined
   abide, educable
   endure, cherished
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

10. It’s probably one of the reasons the Shamima Begum case is having such a ___________ impact; one-dimensional stereotypes about Muslim women already run so deep. Begum ___________ this exact victim-terrorist paradox. While the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl did join Isis, we don’t know whether she committed crimes while in Syria, and none of us will unless she is brought to justice.
    slight, includes
    facile, comprises
    profound, embodies
    jejune, embraces
    All are Correct
    Option C