ECAT — Engineering College Admission Test (UET)

ECAT English — Tenses and Subject-Verb Agreement (Set 7)

Take the ECAT English — Tenses and Subject-Verb Agreement (Set 7): 30 multiple-choice questions (40 minutes) with instant scoring and a full answer…

What this test covers

30 ECAT English

Sample questions with answers

The first 5 questions of this test, with the correct answer and explanation.

Q1. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The kettle ___ for ten minutes before anyone noticed it.
- A. had been boiling ✓
- B. has been boiling
- C. is boiling
- D. would be boiling
Answer: A. had been boiling
Explanation: 'Before anyone noticed' fixes a past moment; an action continuing up to it takes the past perfect continuous.
Q2. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Everyone except Hamza and Faisal ___ asked to submit the form yesterday.
- A. had
- B. have been
- C. was ✓
- D. were
Answer: C. was
Explanation: 'Everyone' is singular; 'except Hamza and Faisal' does not change the subject, and 'yesterday' needs the simple past: was.
Q3. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Either the manager or his assistants ___ responsible for the error last week.
- A. were ✓
- B. was
- C. has been
- D. is
Answer: A. were
Explanation: With either...or the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'assistants' (plural); 'last week' needs the past: were.
Q4. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The professor, together with his research students, ___ the results at the conference tomorrow.
- A. presented
- B. will present ✓
- C. have presented
- D. had presented
Answer: B. will present
Explanation: The future time word 'tomorrow' needs a future form; the subject is the singular 'professor'.
Q5. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: By the time the rescue team reaches the village, the flood water ___.
- A. will have receded ✓
- B. recedes
- C. has receded
- D. had receded
Answer: A. will have receded
Explanation: 'By the time ... reaches' (present for future) pairs with the future perfect in the main clause.

The other 25 questions

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Q6. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: I ___ the same song for an hour, and I still cannot recall its title.
- A. would hum
- B. have been humming
- C. was humming
- D. hum
Q7. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Half of the sugarcane in the field ___ cut before the rain began yesterday.
- A. was
- B. have been
- C. are
- D. were
Q8. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The scissors on the shelf ___ blunt, so please buy a new pair.
- A. is
- B. has been
- C. are
- D. was
Q9. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: If the dam ___ built earlier, the town would have been spared the flood.
- A. would be
- B. was
- C. had been
- D. has been
Q10. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Had the signal been repaired earlier, the collision ___.
- A. would be avoided
- B. would have been avoided
- C. was avoided
- D. will have been avoided
Q11. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: I wish the road ___ so narrow.
- A. would not be
- B. is not
- C. were not
- D. has not been
Q12. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: My uncle ___ in Dubai for fifteen years before he returned to Sialkot.
- A. would live
- B. had lived
- C. lives
- D. has lived
Q13. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The train to Karachi ___ at 6:45 tomorrow morning, so be at the platform early.
- A. departed
- B. departs
- C. has departed
- D. had departed
Q14. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Hardly ___ the lecture begun when the projector failed.
- A. did
- B. has
- C. had
- D. was
Q15. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Not until the results were announced ___ how much he had improved.
- A. did he realise
- B. he realised
- C. he did realise
- D. had he realised
Q16. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: More than one student ___ complained about the noise in the hostel.
- A. has
- B. have
- C. are
- D. were
Q17. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Since the new principal took charge, the school ___ a remarkable change.
- A. had undergone
- B. undergoes
- C. underwent
- D. has undergone
Q18. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The librarian ___ you the catalogue when she returns from lunch.
- A. have sent
- B. sent
- C. had sent
- D. will send
Q19. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Whenever the power goes off, the generator ___ automatically.
- A. will have started
- B. has started
- C. started
- D. starts
Q20. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: By next December, Sara ___ her degree.
- A. would complete
- B. has completed
- C. completes
- D. will have completed
Q21. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The captain, rather than the players, ___ responsible for the poor tactics.
- A. were being
- B. is
- C. have been
- D. are
Q22. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: None of the milk ___ been spilled when the carton fell.
- A. has
- B. are
- C. were
- D. have
Q23. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: The Philippines ___ an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands.
- A. are
- B. is
- C. were
- D. have been
Q24. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: She looked as if she ___ a ghost.
- A. would see
- B. has seen
- C. sees
- D. had seen
Q25. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: My neighbour ___ his car every Sunday morning.
- A. has washed
- B. is washing
- C. will have washed
- D. washes
Q26. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: While the guide ___ the history of the fort, the tourists took photographs.
- A. has explained
- B. had explained
- C. will explain
- D. was explaining
Q27. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: I ___ for you since morning; where were you?
- A. am looking
- B. looked
- C. was looking
- D. have been looking
Q28. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: It is high time for us ___ the matter seriously.
- A. took
- B. to take
- C. take
- D. taking
Q29. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Only after the guests had left ___ the kitchen.
- A. she cleaned
- B. cleaned she
- C. did she clean
- D. she did clean
Q30. Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: Ever since she moved to Lahore, Amna ___ her old friends.
- A. did not see
- B. does not see
- C. had not seen
- D. has not seen