Q 01/05

Which spelling completes 'with ___ breath', a phrase Shakespeare used in The Merchant of Venice for anxious waiting?

A) Bated

B) Baited

C) Batted

D) Abated

Answer · why

A) Bated

Bated is a clipped form of 'abated', so the phrase pictures breathing that is held back or reduced. The word now survives only in this one expression.

Q 02/05

A liquid labelled 'inflammable', a word built on the Latin verb 'inflammare', is best described as which of these?

A) Impossible to set alight

B) Corrosive to skin

C) Easily set on fire

D) Toxic if swallowed

Answer · why

C) Easily set on fire

Easily set on fire is the meaning: the 'in-' comes from Latin 'inflammare', to set alight, and is not a negative. Safety bodies pushed the plainer 'fl...

Q 03/05

Which word completes 'for all ___ and purposes', a phrase that echoes an English law adopted under Henry VIII?

A) Intensive

B) Intents

C) Intense

D) Intended

Answer · why

B) Intents

Intents is the word: the phrase comes from 'to all intents, constructions, and purposes' in a Tudor act of Parliament. Saying 'intensive purposes' ins...

Q 04/05

Which spelling is the cheer of agreement shouted in the British House of Commons, where applause is normally forbidden?

A) Here, here

B) Hear, here

C) Here, hear

D) Hear, hear

Answer · why

D) Hear, hear

Hear, hear is short for 'hear him, hear him!', a late-1600s call for MPs to pay attention to a speaker. It had shrunk to its modern form by the late 1...

Q 05/05

Which word do traditional grammar guides require before countable plurals, as in 'ten items or ___' at a checkout?

A) Less

B) Lesser

C) Fewer

D) Least

Answer · why

C) Fewer

Fewer is what prescriptive guides demand for things you can count, a preference the grammarian Robert Baker first voiced in 1770. Tesco sidestepped th...