Proficiency in English Language Test - 1

The correct antonym of punitive is rewarding.

Punitive: intended as a punishment

Rewarding: giving satisfaction; making you happy because you think it is important, useful, etc.

Damaging: to affect injuriously.

Solvable: susceptible of solution or of being solved, resolved, or explained.

Believable: capable of being believed especially as within the range of known possibility or probability.

As we can observe that the sentence is made in Present Perfect Tense (Have + V³), usage of ‘increasing’ is ungrammatical in the sentence. Instead of it, the adverb ‘increasingly’ should be used here.

Besides, the verb ‘opt’ always takes preposition ‘for’ after it. Therefore, ‘to’ must be replaced by ‘for’ to make it a grammatically correct sentence.

Clearly, among the given choices option (C) replaces the bold part most appropriately.

The sentence after replacement becomes:

Students from around the world have increasingly started opting for online education.

Antipathy means a strong feeling of dislike towards someone or something.

The antonym of imprison is release.

• The word 'Imprison' means to put or keep someone or something in prison or a place like a prison.
• The word 'Release' means to allow or enable someone or something to escape from confinement; set free.

The underlined pronoun is an emphatic pronoun as it is putting emphasis on the noun, 'dog', preceding it.

Complete sentence- Having worked in both government and private schools, Palak is the most suitable person to take over as the principal of the school.

In the past tense, we use the second form of the verb (V2).

In the above sentence, palak has already worked in different schools, after that decision is made. Thus, we will use past these to complete the sentence.

The most appropriate usage for the given fill-in-the-blank is 'born'.

• The word 'born' means 'to come into the world by birth; to start existing 
• Example: I was born in Lucknow but I grew up in Varanasi.

The most appropriate word to fill in the given blank is 'affected'.

• The word affected means '(used about a person or his/her behaviour) not natural or sincere 
• "Affect" is usually used as a verb, an action. "Effect" is usually used as a noun, a thing.
• Example: One effect of the earthquake was that many people lost their homes.

The most appropriate word to fill in the given blank is 'fewer'.

• When we use fewer or less before articles (a/an, the), demonstratives (this, that), possessives (my, your), or pronouns (him, them), we need to use of.
• We use less with singular nouns and fewer with plural nouns.
• Example: Better cycle routes would mean fewer cars and fewer accidents.

Khushwant Singh is the author of book 'We Indians'.