Answers and explanations
- D – drive. To drive something up is to increase something indirectly. For instance, high inflation drives prices up. To force something up is a phrasal verb that usually refers to an artificial increase in prices. To pull up and to reach up both have more literal meanings.
- B – suggests. A common collocation, if evidence suggests something, then it points at the fact that something might be true. Evidence can point at something – a preposition that we are missing here. ‘Displays’ doesn’t work, but ‘shows’ would in this context, however, we don’t have this option. Finally, ‘evidence leads us to believe that…’.
- A – busy. Busy hours is a strong collocation. You might feel that ‘congested’ fits right in, as it describes the traffic situation perfectly. However, correct collocation takes precedence, that is why we stick with ‘busy hours’. ‘Occupied’ and ‘crowded’ do not work well with ‘hours’.
- C – person. A morning person is one who finds mornings, and especially waking up in the morning, enjoyable. Other options here do not make any collocations.
- B – cost. A set expression, if something comes at a cost, then you have to sacrifice something to get it. Note that we are not talking about the literal cost of it, i.e. money is not the general idea, as suggested by the context. This is why ‘price’ does not work here.
- D – scattered. Here we need a phrase to show that meetings are many and far between. ‘Distributed’ is a more technical word that also implies some system or thought put into it. The remaining two options do not work well with the preposition that comes after the gap.
- B – effort. A general term to mean both physical and mental investment into planning. ‘Strength’ only conveys the physical aspect. ‘Power’ is a more general term, referring to one’s ability or capacity.
- D – run. A set expression, ‘in the long run’ means over an extended period of time, after a while.
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