English Questions: Fill in the Blanks 123

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. These are testing times in the theatre of the self. A war is being fought over our identities. The most powerful technology in the world is modelling and predicting our behaviours so that they might more effectively be ______________ . Some elemental human questions are suddenly in play again: am I what I say I am, or am I what others say I am? Is there such a thing as free will? Are “friends” electric? But we contemplate them in ______________ designed for profit; we scream our frustration in emojis (a language designed by committee)!
   monetarily, stages
   monetised, arenas
   affordable, stadia
   financial, grounds
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

2. Theresa May will bring back her deal, perhaps as soon as Monday; that MPs will vote for it and the UK will leave in a ______________ and orderly fashion on 22 May. But it hardly seems likely. There was a time, in the middle of this week, when you could imagine that happening. MPs were clearly spooked by the imminence of a no-deal crash-out in a matter of days, a prospect so terrifying that the leaders of the TUC and the CBI broke from all precedent to issue a joint warning of a “national emergency”, predicting that if there was no deal, “the shock to our economy would be felt by generations to come”. Previously hostile MPs talked of swallowing their objections and voting for May’s withdrawal agreement. But two things ______________ to halt that shift just as it was beginning.
   persistent, shabby
   consistent, dingy
   stable, happened
   steadfast, wilted
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

3. My sole point of light this week was being told that David Cameron had ______________ his memoir – and that the publishers want him to cut 100,000 words from it. No idea what that takes this coolly anticipated opus down to, but given that Geri Halliwell had published two autobiographies by the age of 30, something more ______________ would feel commensurate with the former prime minister’s contribution.
   polished, stretched
   consummate, unabridged
   complete, lengthened
   finished, truncated
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

4. In an age of 24-hour news, declining ratings and intense competition, the commodity in greatest demand is noise. Never mind the content, never mind the facts: all that now counts is impact. A loudmouthed ______________ , already the object of public outrage, is a far more bankable asset than someone who knows what they’re talking about. So the biggest platforms are populated by blusterers and braggarts. The media is the mirror in which we see ourselves. With every glance, our self-image ______________ changes.
   buffoon, subtly
   harlequin, obviously
   comedian, plainly
   droll, strongly
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

5. Having grown up amid a strong Muslim community in Ladbroke Grove, west London, I’ve never been afraid of Islam. We were all striving toward the same goal – to ______________ and make something better for ourselves. Our skin colour or religion weren’t a part of the conversation. I admired and ______________ the Muslim boys on the estate; most of my Moroccan mates came from strong families, something this black boy who grew up without his father wished he had experienced.
   thrive, desired
   succeed, envied
   triumph, spited
   prevail, coveted
   All are Correct
   Option E
   

    

6. There are more pressing ______________ issues around YouTube, and the child exploitation racket, unless there is provable abuse, is probably impossible to ______________ , not least because it is the natural end point to the universal dynamic that we are all content providers now. The lie, of course, is that it is easy money or that these productions are just slightly massaged versions of Candid Camera home videos. As scripted content, the cost to the child is one of time and effort, but more than that, perhaps, one of perception. Most of these children are young – barely out of toddlerhood – when to perform an idea of cuteness and be made aware of its currency is to usher in early a plague of the age: self-consciousness.
   lax, increase
   licentious, expand
   regulatory, curtail
   emancipative, protract
   All are Correct
   Option C
   

    

7. He may have been referring to the start of the March to Leave, Nigel Farage’s much-______________ venture that saw a handful of bedraggled Brexit supporters trudging through the rainswept and muddy countryside. But Shipman may also have been thinking about this Saturday’s Put it to the People March, which ______________ to be somewhat larger, as hundreds of thousands take to the streets of London to demand the final say on any Brexit deal.
   praised, assures
   admired, asserts
   esteemed, addresses
   derided, promises
   All are Correct
   Option D
   

    

8. The director, Justin Baldoni, and actors Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, received advice from the CF and medical community in the US, including author, activist and CF patient Claire Wineland before she sadly died last year. From all accounts, despite some ______________ creative licence (it is Hollywood after all), many of the symptoms are portrayed with alarming accuracy. There has been some criticism that the coughing isn’t frequent enough, and that a portable oxygen compressor would not be enough support for someone in end-stage lung failure, but generally the ______________ from the CF community has been overwhelmingly positive.
   obvious, response
   subtle, reply
   obscure, rebuttal
   ambiguous, retaliation
   All are Correct
   Option A
   

    

9. Across the London borough of Hackney, where I work, 66 schools have had government cuts to per-pupil funding since 2015. Headteachers have been left with the unenviable task of cutting back on subjects and staff to balance the books. Often, teaching assistants are the first to go. Our role is to support pupils in the classroom through assisting teachers in the ______________ of the national curriculum to all children. For some of us, this could involve working as a full classroom assistant, while for many it is the one-to-one or small group interventions that are ______________ of greatest need.
   capture, examined
   delivery, considered
   restraint, deemed
   gibberish, judged
   All are Correct
   Option B
   

    

10. I recently ______________ into the first child I worked with one to one 11 years ago. He told me, excitedly, that he was now at college studying cookery and hoped to become a chef. This young man, diagnosed with Williams syndrome (a developmental disorder that affects many parts of the body), is now doing well. His father, also with some excitement, told me that he was now a teacher, while his mother, ______________ that I was not a teacher yet, encouraged me to take that next step.
    coasted, astounded
    decreased, astonished
    bumped, surprised
    grooved, startled
    All are Correct
    Option C