"Verbal Aptitude" — Practice

Question 1

Choose the correct option: "The quality of the components ____ deteriorated over the last two batches."

Accepted Answer

B

Question 2

Choose the correct option: "She is far more experienced than her colleagues and is therefore ____ them in technical judgement."

Accepted Answer

B

Question 3

Select the pair whose relation is the same as "library : books".

Accepted Answer

A

Question 4

Identify and correct the error: "To improve throughput, the buffer size was doubled by the engineers, who had already been optimised the scheduler."

Accepted Answer

There are two problems, and only one of them is a conventional grammar error.

The explicit error is 'had already been optimised', which mixes the past perfect passive with an active meaning. The engineers optimised the scheduler, so the correct form is the past perfect active: 'had already optimised'.

The second issue is the opening infinitive phrase. 'To improve throughput' should attach to whoever is doing the improving, but the main clause is passive with 'the buffer size' as its subject, so the phrase attaches to the buffer size.

The corrected sentence: 'To improve throughput, the engineers doubled the buffer size, having already optimised the scheduler.'

Note that making the main clause active fixes both problems at once, which is a general pattern worth remembering.

Question 5

A passage states: "Although the compiler's new optimisation pass reduced instruction count by 18 per cent on the benchmark suite, measured runtime improved by only 3 per cent, which the authors attribute to increased cache pressure." Which of the following is stated?

Accepted Answer

B

Question 6

Statements: No compiler is an interpreter. Some translators are compilers. Which conclusion follows?

Accepted Answer

A

Question 7

Arrange P, Q, R, S into a coherent paragraph.
P: Such a guarantee, however, comes at the cost of throughput.
Q: Distributed databases must choose how strictly to synchronise replicas.
R: Strong consistency guarantees that every read observes the most recent write.
S: Many systems therefore expose a weaker model and let the application compensate.

Accepted Answer

Q opens. It introduces its subject with a full noun phrase, contains no back-reference, and states the general problem the other three sentences elaborate.

R follows Q. It names one of the choices Q says must be made, and it introduces the term 'strong consistency' with no prior reference, so it cannot come after a sentence that refers back to it.

P follows R. 'Such a guarantee' refers to the guarantee R defines, and 'however' requires something to contrast with, which R supplies.

S follows P. 'Therefore' requires a preceding reason, and P's throughput cost is that reason. 'A weaker model' is meaningful only once strong consistency has been defined and its cost stated.

The order is Q, R, P, S.

Note that the sequence was fixed entirely by referring expressions and connectives. No judgement about which idea matters most was needed, which is what makes these questions reliably solvable rather than a matter of taste.

Question 8

A passage states: "In a controlled study of 200 experienced developers, those who wrote tests before implementation produced code with 40 per cent fewer defects, though they took 22 per cent longer to deliver an initial working version." Which conclusion is best supported?

Accepted Answer

B

Question 9

Identify the error: "Neither of the two proposed algorithms were able to handle the sparse case, and each of them require substantial memory."

Accepted Answer

Both verbs are wrong, and both for the same underlying reason.

'Neither' is singular, even when followed by 'of the two'. The prepositional phrase does not change the subject, so the correct verb is 'was able', not 'were able'.

'Each' is likewise singular, again regardless of the following 'of them'. The correct verb is 'requires', not 'require'.

The corrected sentence: 'Neither of the two proposed algorithms was able to handle the sparse case, and each of them requires substantial memory.'

The reason both errors feel natural is that the nearby plural nouns — algorithms, them — sit immediately before the verbs. This is the same intervening-phrase trap in two different disguises, and recognising it as one pattern rather than two rules is what makes it reliable under time pressure.

Practice — "Verbal Aptitude"

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