English Usage Previous Year Questions (CAT) - Set 0007
-
Previous years`s CAT questions: English Usage
Post your solutions as reply to respective questions below.
-
Question 1
Choose the best alternative among the four
His mother made great sacrifices to educate him, moving house on three occasions, and severing
the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him understand
the need to persevere.a. severing the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him
understand the need to persevere.
b. severed the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him
understand the need to persevere.
c. severed the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make him
understand the need for persevering.
d. severing the thread on her loom’s shuttle whenever Mencius neglected his lessons to make
them understand the need to persevere. (CAT 1999)
-
Answer: Option A
-
Question 2
Choose the best alternative among the four
Since the advent of cable television, at the beginning of this decade, the entertainment industry took a giant stride forward in our country.
a. this decade saw the entertainment industry taking
b. this decade, the entertainment industry has taken
c. this decade, the entertainment industry had taken
d. this decade, the entertainment industry took  (CAT 1999)
-
Answer: Option B
-
Question 3
Choose the best alternative among the four
If you are in a three-month software design project and, in two weeks, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem, show it to your boss without delay.
a. and, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem in two weeks
b. and, in two weeks, you’ve put together a program that solves part of the problem
c. and, you’ve put together a program that has solved part of the problem in two weeks
d. and, in two weeks, you put together a program that solved only part of the problem (CAT 1999)
-
Answer: Option B
-
Question 4
Choose the best alternative among the four
Many of these environmentalists proclaim to save nothing less than the planet itself.
a. to save nothing lesser than
b. that they are saving nothing lesser than
c. to save nothing less than
d. that they save nothing less than    (CAT 1999)
-
Answer: Option D
-
Question 5
Choose the best alternative among the four
Bacon believes that the medical profession should be permitted to ease and quicken death where
the end would otherwise only delay for a few days and at the cost of great pain.a. be delayed for a few days
b. be delayed for a few days and
c. be otherwise only delayed for a few days and
d. otherwise only delay for a few days and  (CAT 1999)
-
Answer: Option C
-
Question 6
Choose the best alternative among the four
British Airspace has been focusing on building European links.
a. concentrating on creating European links
b. pursuing ways of building European connectivity
c. stressing on building European links
d. focusing on forging European links (CAT 1998 )
-
Answer: Option D
-
Question 7
Choose the best alternative among the four
The appetite of banks for funds was lost under the onslaught of the slowdown, corporates refused to borrow even as bank deposits flourished.
a. bank deposits flourished
b. bank deposits swelled
c. bank deposits were enhanced
d. bank deposits flummoxed  (CAT 1998 )
-
Answer: Option B
-
Question 8
Choose the best alternative among the four
The 8th-century revival of Byzantine learning is an inexplicable phenomenon, and its economic and military precursors have yet to be discovered.
a. a phenomenon yet to be discovered
b. a phenomenon incompletely explained
c. an inexplicable phenomenon
d. an unidentifiable phenomenon  (CAT 1998 )
-
Answer: Option C
-
Question 9
Choose the best alternative among the four
The management can still hire freely but cannot scold freely.
a. cannot scold at will
b. cannot give umbrage
c. cannot take decisions to scold
d. cannot scold willfully   (CAT 1998 )
-
Answer: Option A
-
Question 10
Choose the best alternative among the four
Many people mistake familiarity for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random speed.
a. is to write at random
b. is to write randomly
c. is to write fast
d. is to do speed writing (CAT 1998 )
