All practice questions

Match each phrasal verb listed on the left with its appropriate contextual definition on the right.

In the following sentence, choose the option that is nearest in meaning to the underlined word.

Despite the board's persistent efforts to reach a compromise, the executive director remained intransigent in her refusal to adjust the proposed budgetary allocation.

Which word is nearest in meaning to intransigent as used in the sentence?

Read the sentence below carefully. Which word opposite in meaning to the bold word correctly completes the blank?

Read the sentence below carefully. Which particle correctly completes the phrasal verb to convey the meaning of sustaining an institution through a temporary period of financial difficulty?

Read the passage below carefully:

The Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) was established on May 22, 1964, by four founding member nations: Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad. Headquartered in N'Djamena, the commission was mandated to manage water and natural resources in the basin sustainably. The Central African Republic joined the commission in 1994, whereas Libya became a member in 2008. Member states fund the commission annually, with Nigeria supplying forty percent of the overall operational budget. In 2012, the LCBC launched a major inter-basin water transfer initiative to divert water from the Ubangi River to replenish Lake Chad.

According to the passage, in which year did the Central African Republic join the Lake Chad Basin Commission?

During the parliamentary debate on economic reform, opposition leaders tried to put a spoke in the minister's wheel regarding the proposed privatization bill.

Which of the following options best conveys the meaning of the underlined idiomatic expression?

The governor was commended for his benevolent actions toward the displaced flood victims. Which of the following words is nearest in meaning to the underlined word?

The attorney filed an __________ on behalf of her client to request that a higher court review the decision of the trial court. Which of the following words correctly completes the sentence?

Read the passage below carefully and answer the question that follows:

For generations, agrarian women across the Maradi region of southern Niger have preserved indigenous pearl millet varieties through communal seed-saving networks known as *goba*. Rather than storing seeds in modern temperature-controlled silos, these farmers seal selected panicles in traditional clay granaries lined with neem leaves, which naturally repel insect pests. Recent agricultural development initiatives in the region have promoted high-yielding, genetically uniform hybrid millet seeds, promising short-term harvest surges. While some younger farmers have adopted the commercial hybrids, elder women in the cooperatives continue to safeguard their ancestral varieties. They observe that although the hybrid crops perform exceptionally well during years of steady rainfall, they collapse under the prolonged droughts that periodically sweep the Sahel. The indigenous strains, though yielding lower baseline harvests, demonstrate remarkable resilience against climate volatility. Furthermore, the seed-saving network operates entirely on non-monetary reciprocity, enabling resource-poor households to secure planting material without incurring debt. Consequently, despite aggressive marketing from commercial seed distributors, the *goba* system remains vital to community survival.

What can be inferred from the passage regarding the elder women's persistence with the *goba* system?

Read the passage excerpt below:

"Following weeks of intense industrial disputes, the spokesperson announced that the negotiations had hit 'a modest speed bump', even as factories across three major industrial zones ground to a complete halt."

Which figure of speech is contained in the phrase 'a modest speed bump', and what does it reveal about the spokesperson's intent?

Complete the sentence below by filling in the blank with a word that is nearest in meaning to 'meticulous'.

Read the passage excerpt below carefully.

"In his address to the board of directors, the chief financial analyst emphasized that while recent market growth is encouraging, the firm must temper its ambitious expansion plans with cautious fiscal management."

Which of the following options best captures the meaning of the word temper as used in the excerpt?

Read the passage excerpt below and complete the sentences by identifying the figure of speech used and its contextual meaning.

After hours of intense negotiation, the mediator was finally able to ________ the striking workers to accept the management's revised compensation package.

Which of the following phrasal verbs correctly completes the sentence?

Complete the sentence below by supplying the correct preposition to form a valid phrasal verb.

Read the passage below carefully:

The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) was established by Decree No. 85 of 1993 as the official regulatory body for the Nigerian motion picture industry. Headquartered in Abuja, the board is statutorily empowered to classify all films, video works, and musical videos intended for public exhibition or commercial distribution in Nigeria. Under the enabling law, any film intended for public viewing must be submitted to the board for preview prior to distribution. The board operates six zonal offices across Nigeria to enforce compliance with its censorship standards. In 2008, the NFVCB introduced a digital verification system to combat film piracy and ensure that only approved distribution copies reach retail outlets nationwide.

Based on the passage, the National Film and Video Censors Board was established in 2008.

Read the passage below carefully and answer the question that follows:

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the rapid expansion of mobile financial services has drastically increased financial inclusion for previously unbanked rural populations. However, the fragmented nature of proprietary payment platforms long restricted users to transaction networks within a single service provider, limiting cross-border trade and regional economic integration. To address this bottleneck, several national central banks have recently mandated cross-network interoperability, forcing telecommunication firms and digital banks to integrate their payment switches onto unified national gateways. While critics initially feared that forced interoperability would erode the profit margins of dominant telecommunication operators, initial empirical data indicates that overall transaction volume has surged exponentially, offsetting lower per-transaction fees. For instance, in Ghana, where interoperability was enforced in 2018, small-scale cross-border merchants experienced a thirty percent reduction in remittance transfer delays within the first year alone. Furthermore, tech start-ups in Lagos and Nairobi are now leveraging these unified switches to build secondary financial products, such as micro-crop insurance and automated inventory credit. Ultimately, mandatory payment interoperability serves as the vital structural catalyst for transforming fragmented digital wallets into an integrated, resilient regional digital economy.

Which of the following statements best captures the essential central argument of the passage while discarding secondary illustrations and supporting details?

The members of the committee were at loggerheads over how the remaining funds should be allocated. What is the meaning of the underlined idiom?

Despite initial reluctance from the executive board, the lead negotiator was able to ________ the stakeholders to accept the revised terms of the restructuring agreement. Which of the following prepositional verbs correctly completes the sentence?

During his tenure as the managing director of the state-owned enterprise, Mr. Kenneth was accused of using public funds to feather his own nest. Which of the following options best interprets the meaning of the underlined idiomatic expression?