WORD CHOICE LISTWorthless Barren
Futile Bootless
Vain Otiose
Ineffectual Sleeveless
Unavailing Nugatory.
771. Friedrich's feelings at this juncture are not made known to us by
himself in the least; or credibly by others in any considerable
degree. As indeed in these confused Prussian History-Books,
copulent in ________ pedantisms and learned marine-stores, all
that is human remains distressingly obscure to us; so seldom, and
then only as through endless clouds of ever-whirling idle dust,
can we catch the smallest direct feature of the young man, and of
his real demeanor or meaning, on the present or other occasions! (Thomas Carlyle in his 'History of Friedrich II of Prussia'.)
a) Nugatory
b) Worthless
c) Barren
d) Futile.
772. There is a popular philosophical joke intended to typify
the endless and useless arguments of philosophers; I mean
the joke about which came first, the chicken or the egg?
I am not sure that properly understood, it is so ______ an inquiry
after all. (G.K. Chesterton in his "Wanted an Unpractical Man").
a) Nugatory
b) Worthless
c) Barren
d) Futile.
773. Such is the fate of Gosford's knight,
Who keeps his wisdom out of sight;
... ...Who send my mind (as I believe) less
Than others do, on errands _________; (Jonathan Swift in his poem "The Dean's reasons for not building at Drapier's Hill").
a) Otiose
b) Ineffectual
c) Sleeveless
d) Unavailing.
774. O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!
O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the ______, ______ shore! (Tennyson in his poem "From Lockslay Hall").
a) Nugatory
b) Worthless
c) Barren
d) Futile.
775. Richard cried 'Charge, and give no foot of ground!'
And cried 'A crown, or else a glorious tomb!
A sceptre, or an earthly sepulchre!'
With this we charg'd again; but out alas!
We bodg'd again; as I have seen a swan
With ________ labour swim against the tide
And spend her strength with over-matching waves. (William Shakespeare in his play "King Henry VI, Part III, Scene IV).
a) Bootless
b) Vain
c) Otiose
d) Ineffectual.
776. The candle fell from my hands. I flung out my arms in a ____ effort to thrust that ponderous blackness away from me, and lifting up my voice, screamed with all my might, once, twice, thrice. (H.G. Wells in his novel "The Red Room".)
a) Bootless
b) Vain
c) Otiose
d) Ineffectual.
777. His style became, in a literary sense, vicious, a thing of
tricks and conventions: blank-verse rhythms--I am sure there are a
hundred blank-verse lines in the play--and ______ adjectives crept in and spoilt it as prose (Robert Lynd in his Essay "The Fame of J.M. Synge")
a) Bootless
b) Vain
c) Otiose
d) Ineffectual.
778. A separation of 5000 miles was not a trifling cause of grief; but it
was a pity to tinge the next month of their existence with
__________ melancholy. (Ms. David Osborne in her "The World of Waters"
a) Otiose
b) Ineffectual
c) Sleeveless
d) Unavailing.
779. He thought of the unprecedented population that.
had been sucked up by this sponge of halls and
galleries -- the thirty-three million lives that were
playing out each its own brief ___________ drama below
him, and the complacency that the brightness of the
day and the space and splendour of the view, and above
all the sense of his own importance had begotten,
dwindled and perished. H.G. Wells in his book "When the Sleeper Wakes"
a) Otiose
b) Ineffectual
c) Sleeveless
d) Unavailing.
780. "No, no; it is not love that I feel for thee, and therefore it is that I do not blush to nourish and confess it. Shame on me if I loved, knowing myself so ___________ a thing to thee!" (E.B. Lytton in his book "Zanoni".)
a) Worthless
b) Barren
c) Futile
d) Bootless.
