Reading Comprehension and Sentence Completion: questions and answers

Correct answer: B) only

"Only" fits. The sentence says you have a single choice remaining, and a single forced choice is no real choice, so it is "not an option at all". "Prime", "first" and "best" rank one choice above others, which implies other choices still exist and breaks the logic of the sentence.

Correct answer: C) Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini wrote "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (2007), his second novel after "The Kite Runner". It is set in Afghanistan and follows two women, Mariam and Laila. Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Farah Ahmedi are writers too, but not of this book.

Correct answer: B) Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson is the expected answer. His "A Dictionary of the English Language" (1755) was the first major, widely used English dictionary. Smaller word lists existed earlier, such as Robert Cawdrey's in 1604, but exams credit Johnson. Walton, Butler and Coleridge were writers, not lexicographers.

Correct answer: D) condones

"Condones" is the keyed answer: to condone is to accept or overlook wrongdoing, and the sentence says no institution should excuse plagiarism. The other verbs (censor, rebuke, chastise, expel) are things a school should do. Strictly, after "should" the base form "condone" is needed, so the option has a spelling slip.

Correct answer: B) a whale

A whale. "Moby Dick" centres on Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the white sperm whale that took his leg. The narrator, Ishmael, sails on the whaling ship Pequod. There is no mermaid, crocodile or shark at the centre of the story.

Correct answer: C) Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson. The lines close his dramatic monologue "Ulysses" (written 1833, published 1842). The ageing hero says his body is weaker, yet his will to keep exploring has not broken. Browning, Arnold and Byron wrote in the same century but not this poem.

Correct answer: E) forfeit

"Forfeit". To forfeit a game is to lose it by rule because a team cannot play, for example when it cannot field enough players. "Claim" and "redeem" suggest gaining something, "absolve" means to free from blame, and "asset" is a noun.

Correct answer: A) The Tempest

"The Tempest". Caliban is the island native whom Prospero keeps as a servant in this late Shakespeare play, first staged around 1611. Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello are tragedies with no such character.

Correct answer: C) ডব্লিউ. বি. ইয়েটস

ডব্লিউ. বি. ইয়েটস। ইংরেজি গীতাঞ্জলি (Song Offerings, ১৯১২) রবীন্দ্রনাথ নিজেই অনুবাদ করেন; ইয়েটস লন্ডনে সংকলনটি দেখে ভাষা সম্পাদনায় সাহায্য করেন এবং বিখ্যাত ভূমিকাটি লেখেন। এই বইয়ের জন্য রবীন্দ্রনাথ ১৯১৩ সালে নোবেল পুরস্কার পান।

Correct answer: C) any

"Any" is missing. "Effect" is countable here and needs a determiner, and in questions "any" is the usual choice: "Will the drought have any effect on the rice production this year?" "Have an effect" would also work, but "an" is not offered.

Correct answer: D) topic sentence

The topic sentence. It states the main idea of a paragraph, and every other sentence in the paragraph supports or develops it. A thesis statement does the same job for a whole essay, not a single paragraph. The other two options are not standard writing terms.

Correct answer: A) মহান স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ আমাদের জীবনের অস্তিত্বের আসল ঠিকানা। আমাদের জীবনে তা শুধু একটি শব্দের মধ্যেই সীমাবদ্ধ নেই। প্রতিটি বাঙালির অন্তরের জ্বলন্ত সত্তাপের নামই স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ। স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধের আরেক নাম হলো বাঙালির গর্ব, অহংকার, আবেগ, একরোখায়েমি, অনুপ্রেরণা আর বিদ্রোহ। স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ হলো আমাদের জাতীয়তাবাদ, সংগ্রাম আর কর্মপন্থার ভিত্তি।

Option A is the full translation. It carries every idea in the source: the war as the true root of existence, more than a word, the burning spirit in every Bengali, a source of pride and inspiration, and the base of nationalism. Options B, C and D are single short lines that change or drop the meaning.

Correct answer: C) 1798 - 1832

1798 to 1832 is the Romantic period. It opens with Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads (1798) and is usually closed in 1832, the year Walter Scott died and the Reform Act passed. The years 1649 to 1660 are the Puritan Commonwealth, and 1910 to 1936 covers the Georgian era of George V.

Correct answer: D) ছেলেটি দেখতে তার পিতার মতো

"ছেলেটি দেখতে তার পিতার মতো" fits. "Take after" means to resemble an older relative in looks or nature. It does not mean to look after (দেখাশোনা করা), and it is not about copying (অনুকরণ) or following in someone's steps (পদাঙ্ক অনুসরণ).

Correct answer: C) John Milton

John Milton wrote it. Satan says the line in Book I of Paradise Lost (1667), after he and the rebel angels are thrown out of Heaven, choosing to rule in Hell rather than obey God. Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus, and Shelley was a Romantic poet who admired Milton's Satan.