Sentence Completion Home Exercise -03, DIRECTIONS for questions 11 to 15

11.       Some paleontologists debate whether the diversity of species has ____since the Cambrian period, or whether imperfections in the fossil record only suggest greater diversity today, while in actuality there has been either _____ or decreased diversity.

A.      Changed …… escalation     B. increased …… stasis C. expanded ….. Discontinuity    d. declined …. Reduction

12.       It was not only the _____ of geologists that _____ earlier development of the revolutionary idea that the Earth’s continents were moving plates; classical physicists, who could not then explain the mechanism, had declared continental, movement impossible.

A.      Indecisiveness ….. Challenged    B. radicalism….. deterred  C. conservatism…… hindered   D. assumptions…… hastened

13.       It is puzzling to observe that Jones’s novel has recently been criticized for its ___ structure, since commentators have traditionally argued that its most obvious _____ is its relentlessly rigid, indeed schematic, framework.

A.      Attention to ….. preoccupation    B. lack of …. Flaw   C.  parody of ….. disparity   D. violation of ….. contradiction

14.       Until the current warming trend exceeds the range of normal climatic fluctuations there will be, among scientists, considerable ____ the possibility that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide can cause long-term warming effects.

A.      Interest in   B. uncertainty about   c. enthusiasm for    D. worry about

15.   Politeness is not a ____ attribute of human behavior, but rather a central virtue, one whose very existence is increasingly being _____ by the faddish requirement to “speak one’s nun

A.      Superficial …. Threatened   B. pervasive   …. Undercut    C. worthless …. Forestalled    d. precious …. Repudiated 

Sentence   Completion HE-03

11.       B      the clue here is – decreased diversity. And the first two blanks should have words that have diminishing emphasis. Hence “increased ….. Stasis” fits the bill here. 

12.         C     A bit of general knowledge again. Earth’s continents are moving plates. Hence the classical physicists, by their declaration, “hindered” the envelopment of the revolutionary idea. This fits in the second blank. The word could also be “deterred” but “radicalism” doesn’t fit in the scheme of the statement. 

13.       B   the commentators, till now, criticized rigid, schematic framework. And now they are criticizing it. Hence the first blank must be “lack of” which leads to the “puzzling “in the beginning. 

14.         B  Unless the warming actually happens, there will be “uncertainty” about it. 

15.         A   the first blank is an opposite of “central virtue”. Only “superficial” or “trivial “can fit here. But “threatened “is much better than a meek. “Affected” for the second blank.