The ambitious nobleman ________ to marry the king’s daughter.
- (a)transpired
- (b)perspired
- (c)aspired
- (d)expired
Correct — C, 'aspired'. 'Aspire' means to set one's ambition on something, and it is followed by a to-infinitive — he aspired to marry the king's daughter. The sentence has already called the nobleman 'ambitious', which points straight at the verb built on ambition.
- (a)transpired — 'Transpire' means to come to be known, or simply to happen, and it does not take a person as its subject in this way.
- (b)perspired — 'Perspire' means to sweat, and no to-infinitive follows it.
- (d)expired — 'Expire' means to come to an end or to die, which would make nonsense of a plan to marry.
Four verbs here share the Latin root spirare, meaning to breathe, and the prefix attached to each one changes the meaning completely.
This item is built purely on prefix confusion, since the four options look almost identical on the page. The adjective 'ambitious' earlier in the sentence is the planted clue, and only one of the four verbs carries ambition in it.
- 'Aspire' is followed by 'to' — aspire to a post, aspire to become a pilot.
- 'Transpire' means to become known, or to occur.
- 'Expire' means to reach an end, as a licence or a life does.
- Picking 'transpired' because it sounds formal and important.
- Missing that 'ambitious' has already given the answer away.
Asked as a selecting-words item — pick the verb that fits the blank.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Nobody knows what ________ at the closed-door meeting.
- (a)aspired
- (b)perspired
- (c)transpired
- (d)expired
Answer(c) transpired — 'transpire' means to happen, or to come to be known.
- practice — not a real PYQ
His passport ________ last month, so he cannot travel.
- (a)aspired
- (b)expired
- (c)transpired
- (d)perspired
Answer(b) expired — 'expire' means to reach the end of its validity.