Professional Communication Interview Questions and Answers focuses on “Omission and Repetition of Articles”.
1. Articles are usually omitted before proper nouns.
a) True
b) False
Answer: a
Clarification: Articles are usually omitted before proper nouns. For example, Shakespeare had a comprehensive soul. An article used before a proper noun makes it a common noun.
2. In which of these cases, the article is not omitted?
a) Before names of materials
b) Before names of relations
c) Before the names of certain books
d) Before languages
Answer: c
Clarification: Before the names of certain books, the definite article the is used. For example, The Mahabharat . Before languages, names of materials and relations, articles are omitted.
3. What does the word in bold letters refer to?
His second composition was little better than his first.
a) Hardly
b) Not much
c) Scarcely
d) Wasn’t
Answer: b
Clarification: little is used chiefly with better or more in formal english. For example, His second composition was little (= not much) better than his first.
4. Choose the correct statement.
a) Her brother is an engineer.
b) Her brother is a engineer.
c) Her brother is the engineer.
d) Her brother is engineer.
Answer: a
Clarification: When we define or classify someone or something we use a/an + singular count noun. In the above question, the noun starts with a vowel, so we use an.
5. When we mention someone or something for the first time, we use the.
a) True
b) False
Answer: b
Clarification: When we mention someone or something for the first time, we use a/ an not the. When we mention the same person or thing again, we use the. For example: I saw a dog on the street today. The dog looked hungry.
6. Correct the statement :
Family is an unit of society.
a) Family is the unit of society.
b) Family is a unit of society.
c) Family is unit of society.
d) The family is unit of society.
Answer: b
Clarification: The correct statement is : Family is a unit of society. We use a or an as per the sound of the vowel and not the actual vowel. Here the vowel u is pronounced as yoo.
7. Fill in the blank : He is ___ honest lawyer.
a) a
b) an
c) the
d) very
Answer: b
Clarification: Usually, if the first letter of the word is a consonant, it is preceded by the article a. However, there are some exceptions. The word honest is one such exception. Its first letter is a consonant, but the first syllable of the word is a vowel-like sound. Hence, it should be preceded by an.
8. Little as an adverb can’t be used with which one of these?
a) Verbs
b) Unfavourable adjectives
c) Countable nouns
d) Comparative adverbs
Answer: c
Clarification: The word little has different usages as an adverb. It can be used as with verbs (Eg: The sun came out a little during the day.), with unfavourable adjectives (Eg: His looked a little worse today compared to yesterday.), and so on. However, when dealing with magnitudes and quantities, the word little can only be used if the quantity can’t be counted or assigned a proper value.
9. Find the correct statement.
a) Sun rises in the east.
b) The sun rises in the east.
c) Sun rises in east.
d) The sun rises in east.
Answer: b
Clarification: We use the before names of things that are unique like the sun, the sky, the sea, etc. We also use the when we emphasise to a specific direction.
10. Fill in the blanks : ___ more you concentrate, ___ better you become.
a) the, a
b) the, the
c) a, a
d) the, then
Answer: b
Clarification: The is always used an adverb with comparative. Here as the sentence is comparative, we use the in both the places.
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