General Knowledge Questions

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Everyone expected Mary Zophres to win for her retro-revival Technicolor clothes in La La Land — the eventual winner, Colleen Atwood for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, seemed surprised too. But as other awards began to slip away from the well-reviewed musical, a theme could be teased out. What is Fantastic Beasts if not a plea for equal treatment of people, magical or otherwise? Then, Arrival, a film about the inherent benignity of aliens (read immigrants) won for Best Sound Editing. Hacksaw Ridge, which is, in a way, an anti-guns movie, won in two categories. Fences, about an African-American father who fears racial discrimination, took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Earlier, Moonlight, featuring two minority communities (black and gay), won for Best Supporting Actor. This turned out to be one of those years the Oscar voter was underestimated. As a majority of voters are actors, there was the tendency to think they'd reward La La Land, a celebration of creation: the heroine wants to make movies, the hero wants to make jazz. It looked like the year of The Artist all over again.

Why was it assumed that La La Land would win a lot of awards?

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

My coat's pretty warm, even though it cost £9.99 and came from the flea market. It had a label in it, CHRISTIN BIOR, but I cut it out as soon as I got home. You can't work where I work and have CHRISTIN BIOR in your coat. You could have a genuine vintage Christian Dior label. Or something Japanese. Or maybe no label because you make your clothes yourself out of retro fabrics that you source at Alfies Antiques. But not CHRISTIN BIOR.

As I get near Catford Bridge, I start to feel a knot of tension. I really don't want to be late today. My boss has started throwing all sorts of hissy fits about people "swanning in at all times," so I left an extra twenty minutes early, in case it was a bad day. I can already see: It's a god-awful day. They've been having a lot of problems on our line recently and keep cancelling trains with no warning. Trouble is, in London rush hour, you can't just cancel trains. What are all the people who were planning to get on that train supposed to do? Evaporate?

The author would prefer to be seen wearing all of the following types of clothes, except?

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.

The guide's (knowledge) of the history of the monument surprised me.

Select the synonym of

to subsume

Select the synonym of

objectionable

Improve the bracketed part of the sentence.

When the prodigal son returned home, his father welcomed him (with open hands).

Select the synonym of

confuse

Select the synonym of

improvident