NUMS — Medical & Dental Entry Test

NUMS English — Grammar and Usage (Set 4)

Take the NUMS English — Grammar and Usage (Set 4): 30 multiple-choice questions (40 minutes) with instant scoring and a full answer review. Covers 30 NUMS…

What this test covers

30 NUMS English

Sample questions with answers

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

Q1. Choose the correct option: Neither the pharmacist nor the interns ___ aware of the new storage rule.
- A. are ✓
- B. be
- C. was
- D. is
Answer: A. are
Explanation: With 'neither…nor' the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'the interns', which is plural, so the verb is 'are'.
Q2. Choose the correct option: The number of applicants for medical colleges ___ risen sharply this year.
- A. has ✓
- B. were
- C. are
- D. have
Answer: A. has
Explanation: 'The number of' is singular (it refers to the total), so 'has risen' is correct; 'a number of' would take a plural verb.
Q3. Choose the correct option: Either you or I ___ responsible for the mistake in the register.
- A. are
- B. is
- C. be
- D. am ✓
Answer: D. am
Explanation: With 'either…or' the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'I', which takes 'am'.
Q4. Choose the correct option: One of my cousins, along with his two friends, ___ visiting the hospital today.
- A. were
- B. is ✓
- C. have been
- D. are
Answer: B. is
Explanation: The real subject is 'one'; 'along with his two friends' is a parenthetical phrase and does not change the number.
Q5. Choose the correct option: By the time the ambulance reached the village, the patient ___.
- A. had died ✓
- B. has died
- C. was dying
- D. would die
Answer: A. had died
Explanation: An action completed before another past action ('reached') takes the past perfect.

The other 25 questions

Take the timed test (free, no sign-up) to see your score and the answer and explanation for every question.

Q6. Choose the correct option: I ___ for this test since the beginning of January.
- A. am preparing
- B. had prepared
- C. have been preparing
- D. prepared
Q7. Choose the correct option: I will phone you as soon as I ___ the laboratory results.
- A. am getting
- B. would get
- C. get
- D. will get
Q8. Choose the correct option: When I entered the room, the students ___ the experiment for two hours.
- A. had been performing
- B. have been performing
- C. were perform
- D. are performing
Q9. Choose the correct option: Hardly had the surgeon entered the theatre ___ the lights went out.
- A. than
- B. when
- C. that
- D. then
Q10. Choose the correct option: Had I known about the strike, I ___ the journey.
- A. will postpone
- B. would have postponed
- C. would postpone
- D. had postponed
Q11. Choose the correct option: If I ___ you, I would consult a specialist about that rash.
- A. am
- B. were
- C. would be
- D. had been
Q12. Choose the correct option: I wish I ___ more time to revise before the paper today.
- A. will have
- B. would have
- C. had
- D. have
Q13. Choose the correct option: A new hospital ___ in our town at the moment. (Choose the correct passive of 'They are building a new hospital'.)
- A. was being built
- B. is being built
- C. is built
- D. has been built
Q14. Choose the correct option: The report ___ by the committee before the meeting ended.
- A. had been completed
- B. was completing
- C. had completed
- D. has completed
Q15. Which is the correct indirect form of: He said, "I will call you tomorrow."
- A. He said that he would call me tomorrow.
- B. He said that he would call me the next day.
- C. He said that he will call you tomorrow.
- D. He said that he would call you tomorrow.
Q16. Which is the correct indirect form of: She asked me, "Where did you put the file?"
- A. She asked me where did I put the file.
- B. She asked me that where I had put the file.
- C. She asked me where I had put the file.
- D. She asked me where I put the file?
Q17. Choose the correct option: The nurse was blamed ___ the error in the dosage chart.
- A. on
- B. of
- C. for
- D. with
Q18. Choose the correct option: The patient is indifferent ___ the advice given by the dietician.
- A. with
- B. of
- C. for
- D. to
Q19. Choose the correct option: The committee consists ___ nine members, three of them doctors.
- A. in
- B. from
- C. with
- D. of
Q20. Choose the correct option: He was awarded ___ MBBS degree last year.
- A. a
- B. some
- C. an
- D. no article (zero article)
Q21. Choose the correct option: She plays ___ violin beautifully.
- A. a
- B. an
- C. the
- D. no article (zero article)
Q22. Choose the correct option: He stopped ___ some water because he was thirsty. (He paused his walk in order to drink.)
- A. to drink
- B. to drinking
- C. drinking
- D. drink
Q23. Choose the correct option: She is not used to ___ night shifts.
- A. work
- B. be working
- C. working
- D. have worked
Q24. Choose the correct option: The woman ___ daughter is a surgeon lives next door to us.
- A. which
- B. whom
- C. who
- D. whose
Q25. Choose the correct option: Between you and ___, the proposed plan seems rather risky.
- A. mine
- B. myself
- C. me
- D. I
Q26. Choose the correct option: This is the ___ of the two medicines.
- A. good
- B. most better
- C. best
- D. better
Q27. Choose the correct option: She wore a ___ dress to the convocation.
- A. red lovely cotton
- B. lovely cotton red
- C. lovely red cotton
- D. cotton lovely red
Q28. Choose the correct option: There are ___ beds in the ward than there were last year.
- A. lesser
- B. fewer
- C. less
- D. little
Q29. Choose the correct question tag: Nobody called while I was away, ___?
- A. did they
- B. wasn't it
- C. did he not
- D. didn't they
Q30. Choose the correct option: The more you practise anatomy diagrams, ___ you will remember them.
- A. the better
- B. more better
- C. better
- D. the best