All Free English MCQs with Answers

41. Choose the correct form: By the time we reached the station, the train ____.

• A. left
• B. has left
• C. had left
• D. was leaving

Explanation: When two past actions are compared, the earlier one takes the past perfect, so the train had already gone before we arrived. The present perfect cannot be used because the whole situation is in the past. The simple past would suggest both events happened at the same moment.

42. Choose the correct form: If it rains tomorrow, we ____ the match.

• A. will cancel
• B. would cancel
• C. cancelled
• D. will cancelled

Explanation: A first conditional describes a real and likely future possibility, taking the present simple in the if clause and will plus the base verb in the main clause. Would belongs to the second conditional, which describes an unlikely or imaginary situation. Note that the if clause never takes will in this pattern.

43. Choose the correct form: He said that he ____ to Lahore the previous week.

• A. goes
• B. has gone
• C. had gone
• D. will go

Explanation: Reported speech shifts the tense one step back, so a past simple in the original becomes the past perfect, and the phrase the previous week confirms the earlier time. Keeping the present tense would only be correct if the reporting verb were present. This backshift is one of the most frequently tested rules in entry tests.

44. Change to passive voice: The doctor examined the patient.

• A. The patient is examined by the doctor
• B. The patient was examined by the doctor
• C. The patient has been examined by the doctor
• D. The patient examined the doctor

Explanation: The active sentence is in the past simple, so the passive keeps that tense with was plus the past participle. Changing to is or has been alters the time frame, which a voice change must never do. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive one.

45. Change to passive voice: They are building a new hospital.

• A. A new hospital is built by them
• B. A new hospital was being built by them
• C. A new hospital is being built by them
• D. A new hospital has been built

Explanation: The present continuous active becomes is or are being plus the past participle in the passive. Dropping being would change the meaning to a general statement rather than an action in progress. The agent by them is often omitted in such sentences because it adds little.

46. Choose the correct preposition: She is not interested ____ politics.

• A. on
• B. in
• C. at
• D. for

Explanation: Interested is always followed by in when naming the subject of interest. These verb and adjective plus preposition combinations are fixed by usage rather than by rule, so they simply have to be learnt. Compare good at, afraid of, dependent on and responsible for.

47. Choose the correct preposition: The book is different ____ the one I read last year.

• A. than
• B. from
• C. to
• D. with

Explanation: Different from is the form accepted in careful written English, and it is the one entry tests reward. Different than is common in American speech and different to in British speech, but neither is safe in an examination. The rule is easy to remember alongside similar to, which takes the opposite preposition.

48. Choose the correct article: He is ____ honest man.

• A. a
• B. an
• C. the
• D. no article

Explanation: The choice depends on the sound rather than the letter, and honest begins with a vowel sound because the h is silent, so an is correct. The same reasoning gives a university and a one rupee note, where the spelling begins with a vowel but the sound does not. Always say the word aloud before choosing.

49. Choose the correct verb: Neither of the students ____ prepared for the test.

• A. are
• B. were
• C. is
• D. have

Explanation: Neither is a singular pronoun when used on its own, so it takes a singular verb however plural the following phrase sounds. The words of the students form a prepositional phrase and never control the verb. The same applies to each, every, either and none in careful usage.

50. Choose the correct verb: The list of items ____ on the desk.

• A. are
• B. is
• C. were
• D. have been

Explanation: The subject is list, which is singular, and of items is merely a prepositional phrase that must be ignored when deciding the verb. Testers deliberately place a plural noun immediately before the verb to tempt the wrong choice. Strip the phrase out and the sentence reads the list is on the desk.