This second gap fill test contains 25 multiple choice questions on the topic of grammar revision. Both English learners and ESL teachers can use this online exercise as a general revision to check the knowledge of English grammar.
Question 1
Walter refused to put medical records and other evidence in electronic form, which _____ among the lawyers, because it _____ personal information.
The records cannot send themselves, so the first gap needs a passive form. The modal could be e-mailed expresses possibility: the records could be sent electronically if they were in electronic form. The second gap describes a state, so it takes the past simple contained. Stative verbs like contain are not normally used in the continuous. Not was e-mailed: the records were never put in electronic form, so they were not actually e-mailed.
Question 2
_____ researchers find the vaccine effective in preliminary trials, it will be tough to vaccinate enough gorillas to make a difference for the treatment.
Even if introduces a condition that does not change the result: a good trial result will not make vaccination any easier. Not Since, which gives a reason and does not fit the contrast. Nonetheless is an adverb, not a conjunction, so it cannot introduce a clause.
Question 3
Following an election last month, _____ the conservative parties trounced the left, the result snarled up a coalition building effort, under way since.
In which introduces a non-defining relative clause about the election: the conservatives trounced the left in the election. That cannot be used in a non-defining clause between commas. For which has the wrong preposition, and what cannot refer back to a noun.
Question 4
The pair, _____ won fame as film stars with sweet faces, have found a winning formula in social conservatism to assert the interests.
The pair refers to people, so the non-defining relative clause between commas needs who. Which is used for things, and that is not used in non-defining clauses.
Question 5
Chirac was among the first European leaders _____ Lech, and immediately invited him to Paris.
After the first, the last or the only, English uses the to-infinitive: She was the first to arrive. Chirac did the congratulating, so the infinitive must be active: to congratulate. Not to be congratulated, which is passive and would mean that the leaders received the congratulations.
Question 6
The country's eastern farmland — _____ used to be forest — is now poor and dry.
Farmland is an uncountable noun, so the quantifier is much. A non-defining relative clause about a thing uses of which: much of which. Not many of which or one of which, because both need a countable plural noun. Whose shows possession, and what cannot follow a noun.
Question 7
Some citizens had hoped they might finally get a government dominated _____ by cynical ex-communists, _____ by moralising anti-communists fixated on the past.
The citizens wanted a government run by neither group, so the correlative pair neither … nor is needed. Each word goes before one of the two parallel phrases: neither by X nor by Y. Not either … or, which would mean that one of the two groups is acceptable.
Question 8
_____ out by an obscure regulation, the driver told a Moscow traffic policeman that he wanted to settle things quickly, but without _____ the law.
The driver was caught out by the rule, so the opening needs a passive participle clause. Caught out is the short form of Having been caught out. After the preposition without we use the -ing form: without breaking the law. Not having broken, because breaking the law would come after the settlement, not before it.
Question 9
_____ corruption was a key motive behind the revolutions that have ousted three post-Soviet regimes in the last two years, the Kremlin should worry.
Since here means 'because' and introduces the reason: corruption caused those revolutions, so the Kremlin has reason to worry. For meaning 'because' cannot begin a sentence. Much as means 'although', which gives the wrong logic.
Question 10
Barclays has taken a further £1bn writedown on assets and confirmed profits for the first quarter of 2008 will be _____ last year.
A comparison between two things needs a comparative + than: profits will be lower than last year's. Much lower would need than after it. So low as and such low as are not correct comparative structures.
Question 11
Now - fearing for his business - he's trying to move back, after a wave of new taxes _____ small shopkeepers in towns around Johannesburg.
The gap starts a reduced relative clause with an active meaning: a wave of new taxes targeting small shopkeepers = taxes which targeted them. The present participle targeting is used for this. Not being targeted, which is passive. Not having targeted, because perfect participles do not form reduced relative clauses.
Question 12
There are two brothers running this family business - _____ manages the shop and _____ looks after the accounts.
When we talk about two people or things one by one, we use one … the other: one manages the shop and the other looks after the accounts. Either and neither do not fit an affirmative description of each person. Both cannot be paired with none.
Question 13
Heat-shield technology would therefore also need _____ for the capsule, to help it survive the immense temperatures experienced when _____ to Earth.
The technology must be developed by someone, so need takes a passive infinitive: need to be developed. After when, a reduced time clause uses the -ing form for an action in progress: when falling to Earth = when it is falling. Need developing is possible in British English, but when fallen is wrong, so that option fails.
Question 14
The rescue operations continue and survivors were treated _____ injuries _____ bone fractures, crushed internal organs and kidney failure.
The collocation is treat someone for an injury or illness. Such as introduces examples: injuries such as bone fractures. The other prepositions do not combine with treat in this meaning.
Question 15
It doesn't necessarily mean we _____ food shortages overnight, but in due course and in certain years we _____ up in the situation where the harvest for one particular type of crop in one particular year could be very severely compromised.
The speaker is predicting the future: it does not mean food shortages are going to happen immediately, but in time we could well end up in a crisis. Be going to gives the prediction, and could well means 'it is quite likely that'. The phrasal verb is end up in a situation. May be ended is wrong because end up is not used in the passive here.
Question 16
The Commission proposals could remove up to 15 percent of the substances assessed, some of _____ are particularly important in the UK for the protection of minor crops _____ carrots and parsnips.
Substances are things, so the relative clause needs some of which. Whom is for people, and what cannot follow a noun. Such as introduces examples of minor crops: carrots and parsnips.
Question 17
He escaped in January, _____ the border for the sanctuary of a neighbouring country.
A present participle clause can describe how an action happened at the same time as the main verb: he escaped by crossing the border. Here crossing is active because he did the crossing. Being crossed and to have been crossed are passive. Was crossing would need a subject and a conjunction.
Question 18
People in the quake zone are being told to wear face masks and disinfectant teams are out in force, _____ the WHO says there is _____ significant risk of disease from unburied bodies.
Even though introduces a contrast: people are told to take precautions, although the WHO says the risk is small. Risk is uncountable here, so 'not much' is expressed with little. Not few, which is used with plural countable nouns.
Question 19
Several people were dug out of the rubble on Saturday, _____ a 31-year-old woman in Deyang city, and a 33-year-old miner in Shifang, both about 124 hours after _____.
Including works like a preposition that introduces examples from a group: several people, including a woman and a miner. After the preposition after we need an -ing form. The people were buried by the rubble, so the passive gerund is needed: after being buried.
Question 20
There have been hundreds of aftershocks since Monday's quake, some _____ landslides which _____ conditions even more difficult.
Some causing landslides is an absolute participle clause meaning 'and some of them caused landslides'. The landslides affect the situation now, so the present perfect have made is used. The time phrase since Monday in the main clause supports this.
Question 21
Experts say the chances of finding people alive _____, and increasingly it is dead bodies which _____.
Both gaps describe a situation that is changing right now, as increasingly shows, so we use the present continuous: the chances are diminishing. Rescuers find the bodies, so the second verb must be passive: are being retrieved. Not are retrieving, which is active and would mean that the bodies do the retrieving. Diminishing alone is not a finite verb, so it cannot complete the clause.
Question 22
At the anniversary dinner, the club remembered all the members who _____ or _____ in its first fifty years.
Both actions are finished events in a past period, so the past simple is used. Some members chose to go (left, active). Others were forced out by the club (were expelled, passive). Not expelled alone, because it would need an object.
Question 23
The coach is shouting at every player, _____ them of _____ lazy.
The present participle accusing describes an action happening at the same time as the main verb: the coach is shouting at the players and accusing them at the same time. The pattern is accuse someone of + -ing, so it becomes of being lazy. Accused is either a past-tense verb, which would need its own subject and a conjunction, or a passive participle, which cannot take the object them. Accuse would also need a subject and a conjunction. Being accused is passive too. Finally, of must be followed by an -ing form, so to be and be are wrong.
Question 24
Retailers hand out an estimated 13 billion free plastic bags every year, which take about 1,000 years _____.
The pattern is it takes (time) + to-infinitive, so the bags take 1,000 years to decay. Decay is intransitive and has no passive, so to be decayed is wrong.
Question 25
About 10,000 medical personnel are already on the ground, _____ almost 50,000 soldiers and police.
As well as means 'in addition to': there are medical personnel and also soldiers and police. Not rather than, which means 'instead of'. Not such as, which introduces examples of the first group.
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