Test Your English
How well do you understand the language that you use every day?
See how you get on with these questions…
As well as an answer for each question, there is a brief explanation for each answer.
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Question 1 Identify the types of word used in this sentence.
Filled with terror, a blue rabbit loaded his Kalashnikov and slowly pointed it at the pack of dogs.
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Question 2 Identify the verbs in this sentence.
Henrietta had a particular passion for ice cream which she bought every day and would eat in places where her mother could not find her.
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Question 3 Which do you think is the main verb in this sentence?
The mother scolded the child who had been annoying her.
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Question 4 Punctuate the following piece of writing:
As soon as he saw her he called out wait for me she replied that she was in a hurry.
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Question 5 What is the subject of this sentence or, what is this sentence about? What are we told about the subject?
The two police officers met at party but did not see each other again for two years.
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Question 6 Identify the phrases in the following sentence:
All along the route there were spectators from all over the world.
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Question 7 Identify the main clause in this sentence:
Their uncle paid for their holiday with their pocket money which they been saving for months.
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Question 8 Which of these is a simple sentence, which a compound sentence and which a complex sentence?
a) The teacher whom they had always disliked piled on the homework until they begged for mercy.
b) Some of them cried and some of them simply gave up.
c) All of them passed the exam.
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Question 9 Which of these sentences is periodic, which balanced and which loose?
a) All the way along the coast and through the tunnel Jo felt sick.
b) His father opened a window and his mother passed him a cool cloth.
c) Once they came out of the tunnel Jo felt much better and his father closed the window to stop the violent draft which was also troubling his wife who always fussed about her hair.
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Question 10 Vocabulary – our choice of words
“Let’s offer it up and see if it indexes in the orifice.”
These words were spoken to a friend by his uncle, a professional engineer, as they lay under an old Volkswagen Beetle, struggling to fit a replacement back axle.
Not only were the two of them lying flat on their backs, but their eyes were wide open as they peered up into the darkness trying to fit a peg on the axle into a small hole on the underside of the car.
At the same time they were supporting the weight of the axle which was heavy and swayed from side to side. Every time that it knocked against the car flakes of dirt fell onto their faces and into their eyes. It was a very frustrating position for my friend to find himself in. You can imagine his reaction to his uncle’s words.
The question is, which of these words should the uncle not have used?
Let’s offer it up and see if it indexes in the orifice.