Questions

The Andes ___________ as the floor of the Pacific Ocean slipped uneasily beneath South America, ruffling the land along the west coast of the ___________.

A. formed… continent

B. created… country

C. disinterred… mass

D. depredated… mass

E. shaped… landfill

The best answer is A. Created and shaped would have to be put into a passive form (were created, were shaped) to fill the first blank. Disinterred and depredated are illogical.

Researchers have long ___________ about whether this kind of selfless behavior in animals, ___________ as altruism, directly benefits the helper.

A. argued … known

B. dreamed… deemed

C. stipulated… named

D. simulated… seen

E. posited… characterized

The best answer is A. Only argued and dreamed can go before about. Deemed cannot precede as.

According to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, an animal's success in the gene ___________ is measured by the number of offspring it ___________ raises to pass on its DNA.

A. source… substantially

B. swamp… joyfully

C. pool … successfully

D. base… productively

E. chromosome… verdantly

The best answer is C. Gene pool is idiomatic. Successfully is a logical choice; if the offspring are not raised successfully, they cannot make an impact on the gene pool.

___________ of mythical giant apes lurk in the oral ___________ of most Native American tribes, as well as in Europe and Asia.

A. Talks… chronicles

B. Stories… verbiage

C. Legends… writings

D. Quips… meanderings

E. Tales … traditions

The best answer is E. One can have stories, legends or tales of something. Oral traditions is an idiomatic expression. Furthermore, oral verbiage is both redundant and illogical, while oral writings is a contradiction in terms.

Statistically, the 3,300 responses ___________ the opinions (accurate to plus or minus two percent) of the 154 million American adults who have traveled over the ___________ three years.

A. face… last

B. focus… first

C. preclude… coming

D. represent … past

E. repress… forthcoming

The best answer is D. Grammatically, all of the choices are suitable to fill in the first blank, but semantically, represent is the most logical choice. Because the present perfect (have traveled) is used, the second blank must be something that refers to the past.

The academic services division was ___________ to providing quality support to the students and staff through the provision of specialist administrative ___________.

A. submitted… services

B. committed … assistance

C. destined… debate

D. conniving… help

E. striving… contact

The best answer is B. Choice D and E cannot be correct for the first blank because they are gerund forms. An academic services division cannot normally be submitted. Destined would have to be follow be an infinitive form.

Prosecutors have ___________ a wealth of circumstantial evidence linking the six ___________ to the deadly bombing.

A. collected… detectives

B. amassed … suspects

C. accumulated… suspicions

D. assembled… executors

E. engineered… perpetrators

The best answer is B. To amass wealth is idiomatic. Here the expression is expanded to refer to a wealth of evidence. Suspects is appropriate to refer to people accused but not yet tried.

First hired in 1972 as ___________ staff writer for The Examiner, Frank Gordon has since fashioned a career in journalism ___________ over three decades.

A. a budding… taking

B. a novice… reeling

C. an introductory… sponging

D. an eager… spanning

E. a top… straddling

The best answer is D. For the first blank, a person cannot be introductory. Eager or novice are the most appropriate adjective to describe a beginning writer. Only spanning can be used to indicate that Gordon’s career lasted three decades.

It was thought that if the corpse did not have ___________ care, the former pharaoh would not be able to ___________ out his new duties as king of the dead.

A. careful… fold

B. secret… address

C. deciduous… situate

D. proper … carry

E. learned… marry

The best answer is D. The care that one takes over something cannot be described as careful, secret, deciduous or learned. Duties are said to be carried out.

Many of these prizes are ___________ at the Faculty of Business presentation ceremony ___________ is held in June for the preceding academic year.

A. designated…who

B. relegated… that

C. awarded… which

D. stultified… in which

E. given… where

The best answer is C. Prizes are normally awarded or given. Which is the appropriate pronoun to refer to the ceremony.

Earlier this month tax-evasion charges were ___________ against Maryanne Sumner, who is ___________ for the auditing of operations.

A. filed … responsible

B. summoned… reliable

C. subpoenaed… determined

D. lodged… reachable

E. grated… accountable

The best answer is A. A person can be summoned or subpoenaed, not charges. To file charges is idiomatic.

The Egyptians mummified their dead because they believed that a person needed his body in the afterlife, and the better-looking the better, so it was ___________ on the priests in charge of ___________ to do a good job.

A. designated… wrapping

B. selected… preserving

C. assigned… mummifying

D. doled… exacting

E. incumbent… embalming

The best answer is E. The first four choices for the first blank are used passively (the priest was assigned). The blank calls for an active verb. The work of mummification is embalming.

Projects ___________ by management students include a recent communication analysis and team development project conducted by a postgraduate ___________.

A. serviced… pupil

B. organized… student

C. steered… professor

D. accomplished… teacher

E. sentenced… fellow

The best answer is B. One cannot service, accomplish or sentence a project. A postgraduate is a type of student.

When deep-sea explorers ___________ the Baltic Sea floor located a Swedish spy plane shot down by the Russians more than 50 years ago this June, they ended one of the more ___________ mysteries of the Cold War.

A. dredging… flimsy

B. combing … enduring

C. cruising… unforeseen

D. skimming… unreceptive

E. searching… personified

The best answer is B. One cannot cruise or skim the sea floor. A mystery can be described as enduring when it has been in existance for a long period of time.

By ___________ the elements in the bones of a person long dead, researchers can ___________ the main constituents of that individual's diet.

A. testing… delineate

B. revealing… concoct

C. exhuming… discern

D. examining… determine

E. subsuming… reveal

The best answer is D. A body can be exhumed, but not the elements in the bones of a body. These can be tested, examined or revealed. The constituents of a person’s diet can be determined.

Connected by a complex set of ___________ roads, the villages were defined by ditches, curbs, moats, open parklands, and working forests.

A. intersecting

B. fixed

C. interlinking

D. thickened

E. dense

The best answer is C. Since the roads are described as complex, it makes sense that they would be interlinked.

Discovered by two paleontology students in clay pits near Peterborough, the ___________ is the largest known fish ever ___________.

A. fossil … recorded

B. remnant… devoured

C. visage… monitored

D. vestige… summoned

E. pebble… careened

The best answer is A. Only fossil is logical in reference to a fish.

The recent arrest has ___________ concern about a government push against powerful business barons before the ___________ elections.

A. hurdled… forthcoming

B. marked… approaching

C. initiated… short

D. sparked … upcoming

E. kindled… near

The best answer is D. While choices C, D and E are all possible, only sparked concern is idiomatic.

The government will also now start the legal process of lifting the monopoly ___________ by Telecon, the state carrier.

A. endured

B. pressed upon

C. enjoyed

D. confounded

E. supplied

The best answer is C. A monopoly is something that a company enjoys, so C is the most logical choice.

An extensive archaeological excavation has ___________ a lost city that is believed to be one of the ___________ jewels in the ancient civilization of the Maya.

A. unearthed … crowning

B. buried… shining

C. uncovered… glowing

D. bared… crowned

E. obscured… buffed

The best answer is. Excavations remove objects from the earth therefore, unearthed is an appropriate choice. Crowning jewels is idiomatic.

Chapter 6: