English Quiz for IBPS Clerk Prelims 2015 – Set 7

Directions (Q. 1-10):
In the following passage there are blanks, each of which has been numbered.
These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words/
phrases are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the
appropriate word/ phrase in each case and mark your answer.

The international fight against Islamic
State moved up a _____ (1) on Saturday as Turkish police arrested a Belgian
suspect heading for Syria in connection with ____ (2) week’s Paris attacks,
hours after the UN Security Council unanimously ______ (3) all its members to
combat the extremist group. A day after the EU imposed ____ (4) new external
border controls, authorities in Belgium raised the alert level in the capital
to level four – signifying a “serious and imminent threat” as the
_______ (5) for the remaining jihadi who killed 130 people in Paris entered its
second week. The presumed ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud,
a 28- year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, was ______ (6) to have been
in Syria but died in a ferocious seven-hour gunfight ______ (7) police at a
rundown apartment in StDenis, north of Paris, on Wednesday. Another ______ (8)
member of the unit, Salah Abdelslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman living in
Brussels, is the subject of an international manhunt. His brother, Brahim, who
blew himself up in the attacks, spent time in a Belgian prison with Abaaoud,
while a third Molenbeek resident, Bilal Hadfi, was also among the Paris suicide
bombers. Belgian Special Forces ______ (9) four people in the capital’s Place
du Grand Sablonon Saturday afternoon, while the Brussels Metro system is
expected to be shut down until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. Shops ______
(10) closed, some shopping malls were shuttered, professional football was
cancelled, concerts were called off and music venues, museums, and galleries
shut their doors for the weekend.

1. 1) gear 2) ahead 3) above 4) always 5) alone

2. 1) lost 2) last 3) late 4) lastly 5) lasted

3. 1) urge 2) urging 3) urged 4) pledged 5) plead

4. 1) tight 2) treat 3) tread 4) tough 5) track

5. 1) hate 2) hurt 3) heat 4) hurt 5) hunt

6. 1) thought 2) thinking 3) think 4) thinned 5) thanked

7. 1) from 2) with 3) for 4) form 5) firm

8. 1) suspense 2) suspect 3) suspected 4) suspecting 5)
suspects

9. 1) convicted 2) allowed 3) acquitted 4) arrested 5)
prosecuted

10. 1) are to 2) will be 3) will been 4) have been 5) were