1. He felt convinced, in his own mind, that he had been attacked by some fatal disease. When he arrived in London, ___________ he was relieved to find that the specialists whom he consulted, while they mostly gave him his money’s worth of polite interest, did not display any anxiety as to his condition.
Which choice competes the text with the most logical translation?
A. after a bit,
B. however,
C. on the other hand,
D. in addition
2. I want to talk to you about the child, little Juliet,” she said, a day or two later. She is not mine ________________ beyond that her parentage must remain a secret, even from you. Yet this I may say: she is the child of a friend of mine” A. consequently, and
B. however, but
C. of course, but
D. also, and
3. Besides, there was no getting over the fact that she was no relation whatever, and was, in addition, a considerable drain on the family resources, all of which Lady Byrne felt entirely equal to disbursing alone and unassisted. ___________ her presence led to disagreements between Sir Arthur and his wife.
A. Eventually,
B. Nonetheless,
C. In contrast,
D. Regardless,
4. The room in which she sat was so dark, so gloomy, so bare and cheerless, that Juliet began to wonder whether she would not have been wiser not to have come. This was not a place, _________ which fond parents would choose for a long-deferred meeting with their child, after years of separation.
A. therefore,
B. however,
C. fortunately,
D. surely,
5. He is one of the most respectable, the most domesticated of peers. Not very cheerful company, _____________ no one in the world can justly say a word against him in any way. He has had a sad time lately; his wife and only child died within a month of each other, only two or three years ago. A. maybe, and
B. for
C. though, so
D. perhaps, but
6. From the quickness with which Lord Ashiel answered her, he might have been sitting waiting at the end of the wire, and he expressed great pleasure at her acceptance of his invitation. ________ she could hear from the tone of his voice that his gratification was no mere empty form.
A. While,
B. Conversely,
C. Indeed,
D. Nevertheless,
7. No one was more conscious than himself that he was far from being infallible; _______ his admirers appeared to him to be willfully blind to that elementary truth; so that when he failed to bring a case to a successful issue people were apt to show an amount of disappointment that he, for his part, thought very unreasonable.
A. subsequently,
B. as has been noted,
C. for instance,
D. in fact,
8. In spite of her extremely hazy ideas on the subject of other people’s property, there was, he admitted, something attractive about her. __________ he was very glad she had gone.
A. Still,
B. As a result,
C. Naturally,
D. Moreover,
9. For a long while he sat on, huddled in the corner of an arm-chair, his elbows on the arm, his chin resting on his hand, and in his eyes the look of one who wrestles with obscure and complicated problems of mental arithmetic. ________________ but without relaxing his expression of concentrated effort, he stretched out long artistic fingers to a box on the table, took from it a chocolate, and transferred it mechanically to his mouth.
A. From time to time,
B. In brief,
C. In conclusion,
D. On the other hand,
10. Juliet did not really enjoy grouse-driving, but she tried to appear as if she did, since everyone else seemed to, and at all events there were intervals between drives when she could be happy in the glory of the hills and the wild free air of the moors. ____________she knelt in her corner of the butt beside her host’s big retriever, and waited. There was a little bunch of heather growing level with her nose, and she bent forward silently and sniffed at it. But the honey-sweet scent was drowned for the moment by the smell of gunpowder and dog.
A. For example,
B. Meanwhile,
C. Accordingly,
D. Because,
- B. In the first sentence, we learn that the man believes himself to be fatally ill. In the next sentence, though we learn that the doctors are not worried about him at all. These two ideas are in contrast to one another, making “however,” the best option.
- C. “She is not mine” is an independent clause, as is “beyond that her parentage must remain a secret”. To connect these two independent clauses, we need a comma and one of the FANBOYS like “but” or “and”. In this situation the two independent clauses are contrasting with one another, making “but” a better option than “and”. Since “but” is a contrasting word, we do not need a second contrasting word like “however”.
- A. In the first part of the passage, we learn that the woman is not a relative and is a financial drain of the family. We also learn that Lady Byrne wants to control the finances without input from the woman. It only makes sense, then, that her presence would “eventually” cause disagreements between Sir Arthur and Lady Byrne.
- D. Juliet, hoping for a meeting with her parents, looks at the dark and gloomy room and thinks that “surely” no parents would plan a reunion in such a place. Options A, B, and C do not fit the authors intended meaning.
- D. The first part of the sentence reveals that the man is not very cheerful company (a negative statement). The second part of the sentence reveals that no one can say anything bad about him (a positive statement). These two statements contrast, making “but” the ideal one of the FANBOYS to pair with the comma in connecting the two independent clauses.
- C. “Indeed” could also mean “in addition.” The author here is trying to add more information to the previous statement about Lord Ashiel’s “great pleasure at her acceptance”, making “indeed” the best option.
- D. Since it has not previously been stated that his admirers were blind to the truth, answer B is incorrect. The second sentence is not an example of the first, so answer C is incorrect. The first sentence is not caused by the first, so answer A is incorrect. Option D is the best answer.
- A. The author is setting up a contrast. Even though he finds her attractive, he is glad she is gone. Only answer A shows this contrast.
- A. The second sentence is not summing up the first, making choices B and C incorrect. The second sentence is not contrasting with the first sentence, making choice D incorrect. Only answer option A correctly describes the actions of the man.
- B. Juliet does not enjoy the activity at hand, but she is there because she enjoys “the glory of the hills and wild free air”. At the time described in the passage “meanwhile” she is not enjoying the hills and air, she is crouched in the corner with a dog, waiting. This makes answer option B the best. We need a description of time, which A, C, and D are not.
All passages are exerts or adaptations from The Ashiel Mystery: A Detective Story, by Mrs. Charles Bryce. If you’d like to read the story in it’s entirety, it is available on Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9746/pg9746-images.html