English Grammar Quiz and Answers for Competitive Exams

An explorer is someone who travels to unknown places in order to discover new things. A tourist typically travels for leisure or sightseeing rather than exploration. A wanderer refers more to someone who travels aimlessly or without a specific destination in mind. A nomad is someone who moves from place to place, often following traditional routes or patterns, rather than exploring unknown territories. Therefore, "Explorer" best fits the description of a person who travels to unknown places to find out new things.

The phrase "By the time he arrives" indicates a point in the future relative to another action. When we use this phrase, we typically use a future perfect tense to indicate an action that will be completed before another future action.

• a) will have finished - This option correctly uses the future perfect tense ("will have finished"), indicating that the action of finishing dinner will be completed before the arrival of "he".
• b) have finished - This is in the present perfect tense, which suggests that the action of finishing dinner has already been completed, without necessarily linking it to the future arrival.
• c) will be finishing - This uses the future continuous tense, which implies that the action of finishing dinner will be ongoing at the time "he" arrives, rather than already completed.
• d) finished - This is in the simple past tense, which does not fit the context of a future action ("By the time he arrives").

Therefore, the correct answer is a) will have finished.

This choice correctly indicates that the action of finishing dinner will be completed by the time "he" arrives in the future.

In this sentence, "neither" is used to refer to "boys," which is a plural noun. When "neither" or "either" is used as the subject followed by "of," the verb agrees with the noun immediately following "of." In this case, "boys" is plural, but "neither" requires a singular verb form because it refers to "none" or "not one" of the boys.

Therefore, the correct verb form is "was" (singular), making the correct sentence:

c) Neither of the boys was present in the class.

This sentence correctly matches the singular verb "was" with the subject "neither of the boys."

• Obsolete means no longer in use or outdated.
• Modern (a) means current, up-to-date.
• Current (b) means happening or existing now.
• Trendy (d) means fashionable or stylish.

Therefore, the correct answer is c) Outdated, as it best matches the meaning of "Obsolete."

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs to provide more information about how, when, where, or to what extent something happens. In this case, "very" modifies the adverb "hard", indicating the intensity or degree of their hard work.

"Abundant" refers to something that is available in large quantities or is plentiful. Therefore, "Plentiful" is the correct synonym for "Abundant." The other options (Rare, Scarce, Sparse) have meanings that are opposite to "Abundant."

The sentence is in the present tense and describes a habitual action (something that happens every day). Therefore, the correct form of the verb "go" for the third person singular (he, she, it) in the present tense is "goes."

To determine the part of speech of the underlined word "quickly," we need to understand its role in the sentence.

• Noun: A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. "Quickly" does not name anything.
• Adjective: An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. "Quickly" does not describe a noun.
• Verb: A verb expresses an action or state of being. The main verb in this sentence is "ran."
• Adverb: An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb, often indicating how, when, where, or to what extent something is done. "Quickly" describes how she ran.

In this sentence, "quickly" modifies the verb "ran," indicating how she ran.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

d) Adverb

When converting direct speech to indirect speech, we need to follow certain rules, including tense changes.

The direct speech sentence is: He said, "I am going to the market."

Here's the step-by-step process to convert it to indirect speech:

1. Change of Pronoun:
   • The pronoun "I" in direct speech refers to the speaker (He). So, "I" changes to "he" in indirect speech.
2. Change of Tense:
   • The present continuous tense "am going" in indirect speech changes to the past continuous tense "was going" in indirect speech.
3. Remove the Quotation Marks:
   • The quotation marks are removed and the sentence is connected with "that."
4. Maintain the Sentence Structure:
   • The rest of the sentence structure remains the same.

Applying these rules, the sentence "He said, 'I am going to the market.'" becomes "He said that he was going to the market."

Therefore, the correct option is: c) He said that he was going to the market.

In this sentence, "I want to buy a new dress" and "I do not have enough money" are two independent clauses. When two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (in this case, "but"), a comma should be placed before the conjunction to separate the clauses.

Let's break down each option:

• a) I want to buy a new dress, but I do not have enough money.
  • This sentence is correctly punctuated. The comma before "but" separates the two independent clauses.
• b) I want to buy a new dress but I do not have enough money.
  • This sentence is missing a comma before "but." Without the comma, it incorrectly joins two independent clauses.
• c) I want to buy a new dress, but I do not have enough money.
  • This sentence uses a semicolon before "but," which is incorrect. A semicolon is used to join closely related independent clauses that are not joined by a conjunction.
• d) I want to buy a new dress but, I do not have enough money.
  • This sentence incorrectly places the comma after "but." The comma should be before the conjunction "but" to correctly separate the two independent clauses.

Thus, option a) is the correct choice as it follows the proper punctuation rules for joining two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction.