A Sample Worked Section from the Three-Pack
What do the questions and worked solutions in a scholarship English practice test actually look like?
This is a sample of real questions drawn from the Argo three-pack practice assessments, spanning both the Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension sections: synonyms, odd-one-out, made-up-language decoding, word analogies, in-context vocabulary, proverbs and spelling. Each question is followed by the pack's full worked solution — the correct answer plus the reasoning that eliminates every other option, which is the model of precision the whole guide is built around.
These are taken verbatim from Test One. Try each question yourself before reading the solution beneath it — that's how the pack is meant to be used.
Verbal Reasoning
1. Which of the following is most similar in meaning to preposterous?
A. Absurd B. Farcical C. Contemptuous D. Wild E. Implausible
Answer: A, Absurd. Absurd — 'ridiculously unreasonable, unsound or incongruous' — matches preposterous, 'contrary to nature, reason, or common sense'. B and E both appeal to the ridiculous, unbelievable nature of something preposterous, but neither carries both the lack of reason and the sense of not fitting in that absurd does. B, farcical, refers first to a farce — a situation absurd in nature — rather than something contrary to reason. C, contemptuous, means expressing deep hatred or disapproval, not a general contrariness to common sense.
2. All the words in the box are alike in some way. Which option could not fit in the box?
Box: Ash · Ember · Smoke · Debris. — A. Fire B. Kindling C. Spark D. Dirt E. Meal
Answer: D, Dirt. The boxed words all relate to fire. A, B and C are immediately out — fire is fire itself, kindling is the small wood that starts a fire, and a spark ignites it. E, meal, can relate because a meal can be cooked with fire. D, dirt, relates in no way, and is therefore the answer.
3. In a foreign language: SIM SWGUN SLUM means SHALL WE GO · TYEH TUM SLUM means WHERE WE STAY · HAI GUN SWGUN means YES I SHALL. What word means GO?
A. SIM B. SWGUN C. SLUM D. HAI E. GUN
Answer: A, SIM. The word for GO must be in the first row, since only that row translates GO — so the answer is SIM, SWGUN or SLUM (D and E are out). SLUM appears in rows one and two, but GO isn't in row two, so SLUM must mean the word common to both: WE. SWGUN appears in rows one and three, but GO isn't in row three, so SWGUN must mean the common word: SHALL. That leaves only SIM in the first row unaccounted for — so SIM means GO.
5. Bitter is to sweet as pride is to:
A. Agony B. Vice C. Virtue D. Sin E. Shame
Answer: E, Shame. Bitter and sweet are antonyms — directly opposite. Pride ('the quality or state of being proud') is directly unlike shame ('a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute'): feeling pride is being satisfied and celebratory of one's own achievements. A, agony, can come with shame but isn't a proper opposite of pride. B and D — pride is a vice and a sin, but those aren't antonyms of it. C, virtue, is opposite in one respect, but doesn't capture the full contrast that shame does.
Reading Comprehension
1. "The isles south of here have a mysterious, pernicious bite." The word 'pernicious' means:
A. Ineffable B. Incorrect C. Obscured D. Adverse E. Inimical
Answer: E, Inimical. Inimical — 'being adverse, often by reason of hostility or malevolence' — is correct because it specifies the malevolence or inherent 'badness' that D, adverse ('acting against or in a contrary direction'), lacks. Pernicious means 'highly injurious or destructive', which doesn't relate to A, ineffable ('unable to be put into words'), B, incorrect, or C, obscured ('made not readily visible').
9. What is meant by the sentence: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"?
A. Things that are taken should be replaced B. There is no harm in a little fun C. Justice is a tool of compassion not evil D. Justice shall be relative to the crime E. No justice shall come half committed
Answer: D, Justice shall be relative to the crime. The proverb sets the scale of the justice to the scale of the crime: if an eye is taken, so must the perpetrator's — a proportional relation between crime and its compensation. E is true in that justice won't come half-done, but misses the equality and reciprocity of D. A catches the general meaning but doesn't specify that it's crime-then-justice, not a simple replacement of taken things. B doesn't relate to the prompt; C, though it may be true that justice should be compassionate, doesn't reflect the essence of the proverb.
10. Choose the option that best replaces the underlined word: "The woman with a blue overcoat was known for her intiligince."
A. Intelligence B. Inteligence C. Intelegience D. Intteligence E. None
Answer: A, Intelligence — spelt just so. The others are misspellings.
12. "Their love would be perpetual." The word 'perpetual' means:
A. Everlasting B. Perfect C. Persistent D. Stable E. Spotless
Answer: A, Everlasting. Everlasting — 'lasting or enduring through all time' — directly matches perpetuity, 'the quality or state of continuing forever'. B, perfect ('without flaw'), doesn't relate to time here. C and D appeal to endurance, but something persistent or stable still admits the possibility of ending, which everlasting rules out. E simply doesn't relate.
What to notice about the solutions
Every solution above does the same thing: it names the correct answer, defines the key words precisely, and then explains why each other option fails. That's the habit the whole guide trains — a right answer here is almost always the one you can defend against the near-misses, not just the one that "sounds right."
Want all three assessments with their full worked solutions? The complete three-pack is a free download from the Three-Pack download page. For the study routine that ties the tests and the guide together, see The Three-Pack of Full Practice Assessments.