Prepositions (time, place, verb & adjective collocations) MCQ — 15 Practice Questions with Answers

Explanation

The adjective averse means unwilling or opposed, and in standard usage it is followed by to, especially before a noun or gerund: averse to reopening. The cue is the adjective itself, not the idea of opposition. Candidates often choose against because the meaning suggests resistance, but collocation is decisive here. From would suit verbs such as abstain from, and of belongs to different adjective patterns. Hence the correct sentence is the one with averse to.

Explanation

When 'accompanied' is used in the passive voice with a person, the usual preposition is 'by': 'was accompanied by the district collector'. The cue is that the collector is the accompanying person, not an instrument or an additional feature. 'Accompanied with' is sometimes used for things that come together, especially symptoms or qualities, as in 'fever accompanied with pain', though even there 'by' is often preferred. For a human companion in this sentence, Statement 2 alone is correct.

Explanation

Use until when an action or state continues up to a specified time. Here, the inquiry was not completed by Monday; it was postponed so that no proceedings would take place before that date. By would mean the inquiry had to be completed before or not later than Monday, which changes the sense. For would need a duration such as for a week, and since normally looks back from a later reference point. Therefore, until the following Monday is the precise expression.

Explanation

The standard collocation is 'indifferent to'. The adjective 'indifferent' means unconcerned, unmoved, or showing no special interest, and the thing that fails to affect the person is introduced by 'to': indifferent to criticism, indifferent to danger, indifferent to the allegations. 'About' is often heard in loose speech, but competitive-exam grammar expects the established adjective-preposition pairing. 'For' and 'from' do not express the relation between the officer's attitude and the allegations.

Explanation

The correct matches are 'comply with' a rule or instruction, 'abstain from' an act or substance, 'compensate for' a loss or inconvenience, and 'subscribe to' a view or principle. These are fixed verb-preposition collocations, not combinations chosen by literal meaning alone. Option A gives exactly these four pairings. The distractors use tempting but non-standard substitutions such as 'comply to' and 'compensate from', which may sound formal but are not idiomatic in standard English.