General guidelines
and illustrations:
The
verbal section helps to evaluate your practicing the English Language and to work with specialized technical vocabulary. It assesses
your ability to understand.
A
variety of questions are designed to assess the extent of your vocabulary, to measure your ability to use words as tools in reasoning,
to test your ability to discern the relationships that exist both within
written passages and among individual groups of words. You are tested not only
for your use of words but also for reasoning and arguing.
This is a multiple – choice examination. You must answer a
number of questions in a given period of
time. That is to say, you must not only have analytical skill to comprehend the
correct meaning of words but you must also be capable of instant, precise and
powerful judgment.
The following types
of questions come under this section:
1. Sentence Completion
2. Analogy
3. Reconstruction of paragraphs
4. Synonyms / Antonyms
5. Sentence Improvement (i.e. style of expression)
6. Error Correction
7. Odd word out
8. Foreign words
These questions test your ability in formal written English. Many things that are acceptable in spoken English are not acceptable
in written English. This section tests your ability to understand the meaning of a
word individually and also in relationship with other words. All the types of
questions listed above are not likely to be set in any particular examination
and all possible types are also not listed here.
1. Sentence Completion:
The sentence completion
section consists of sentences, a part or parts of which have been omitted,
followed by five choices that are possible substitutions for the omitted parts.
You have to select the choice that best completes each sentence.
The sentences cover a wide
variety of topics over a number of academic fields. They do not, however, test
specific academic knowledge in any field.
Example:
The quarterback’s injury was
very painful but not _________ and he managed to
_____________ the game in spite
of it.
a. serious …….. interrupt
b. incapacitating ……. Finish
c. harmful ……. Abandon
d. conducive ……. Enter
e. excruciating …. Concede
Solution:
The best answer is (b). The
first blank must complete the contrast set up by ‘but not’. Only a, b and e are
possible choices on this basis. Then the ‘in spite of’ sets up a contrast
between what comes before the comma and what follow. Only (b) provides the
needed thought reversal.
2. Analogy
Analogy questions test
your understanding of the relationships among words and ideas. You are given
one pair of words, followed by five answer choices (also word pairs). The idea
is to select from among the five choices a pair that expresses a relationship
similar to that expressed by the original pair. Many relationships are possible.
The two terms in the pair can be synonyms. One can be a cause, the other effect.
One can be a tool, the other the worker who used the tool.
Example: MINISTER: PULPIT
a. doctor : patient
b. student : teacher
c. mechanic : engine
d. programme : engine
e. judge : bench
The best choice is (e). The
pulpit is the place where the minister does her or his job,
and the bench is the place where
the judge does his or her job.
3. Reconstructing paragraphs:
Here you will find jumbled up
sentences of a readable and well-connected paragraph. Four different sequences
of these sentences are indicated in a corresponding sequence of code numbers.
You are to pick the correct arrangement.
Example:
1. What one saw this year was a
fine balance between Multimedia and conventional
publishing.
A. Multimedia companies had a strong presence
B. Fine in the happy sense of the world
C. This consists of demonstrations and talks
on new education software
D. In fact, for the first time there was a
special focus on Multimedia learning.
6. The conventional publishers looked and
sounded more confident of themselves.
1. ADCB
2. BADC
3. DCBA
4. DCAB
You are to identify one among
the choices indicating the most appropriate sequential arrangement to fit
between statement 1 and statement 6.
The best answer choice to
continue the trend of thought in sentence 1 would be
(2). BADC.
4. Synonyms/Antonyms
Under this section, a
single word is followed by five different words as possible answer choices. The
idea is to pick the answer that has the meaning which is most nearly the same
as (synonyms) or most nearly the opposite (antonyms) of the given word.
Example: Antonyms
WAIVE
A. repeat
B. conclude
C. Insist upon
D. Improve upon
E. peruse
The best answer (c). to waive means to forego or relinquish. A fairly
precise opposite is ‘insist upon’.
5. Sentence Improvement:
This tests your mastery of
written English. You must demonstrate your ability to recognize incorrect
(grammatical and logical) or ineffective (clear, concise, idiomatic)
expressions and choose the best (correct, concise, stylish, idiomatic) of several
suggested revisions. Each question begins with a sentence, all or parts of which
have been underlined. The answer choices represent the different ways of rendering
the underlined part.
“Beautifully
sanded and re-varnished, Bill proudly displayed the antique desk in his den.”
A. Beautifully sanded and
re-varnished, Bill proudly displayed the antique desk in his
den.
B. Beautiful, sanded and
re-varnished, in his den Bill proudly displayed his desk.
C. An antique, and beautifully
sanded and re-varnished, in his den Bill proudly
displayed his desk.
D. Bill proudly displayed the
antique desk beautifully sanded and re-varnished, in his
den.
E. Bill, beautifully sanded and
revarnished in the den, proudly displayed the antique
desk.
The correct answer is D. The
sentence originally written suggests that it was Bill who was sanded and
revarnished. Only D. makes it clear that it was the desk, not Bill that was
refurbished.
6. Error corrections:
In this section, you have to
pick the error in a given sentence. Each sentence has 4 words or phrases
underlined and labeled A, B, C and D. One of those 4 items is incorrect. You
must decide which one is incorrect. The error is always one of the underlined
words or phrases. You do not have to correct the error.
Example:
When
moist air rises into/ lowest temperatures and /becomes saturated,/
A B C
condensation
takes place.
D
The sentence should read. “when moist
air rises into lower temperatures and
becomes
saturated, condensation takes place”.
Therefore, you should choose B as error.
Sentences without error are,
generally, not given, but still in some papers you might find them.
This section will not give you a
complete grammatical review of the English language. Many excellent books have
been written which analyze the structure of English and its many exceptions.
Attempt has been made in this section to organize, in a methodical way, the
strategic error areas that you can use as a checklist when attempting to
eliminate incorrect choices. English grammar can be intricate and confusing.
This section will alert you to spot errors and will focus on the grammatical points
frequently tested.
Strategies to be used:
1.
Read the question carefully for both meaning and structure, noting any errors
you
recognize immediately.
2. If
an error does not become immediately evident, consider each choice independently,
and see if it fits the correct pattern.
3.
Remember that the error is always underlined.
4.
Even if you think (A) or (B) is the correct answer, thoughtfully read and consider
the
remaining choices so that you are
absolutely certain that (A) or (B) is truly the right
choice.
5. Always select your answer
after eliminating incorrect choices.