Study sets
English

TOEIC Part 5 | Incomplete Sentences: Quantifiers and Articles 14

1 / 100.0s

Problem 1

Because of the recent restructuring, ____ employees in the accounting department are now handling twice as many accounts as before.

View explanation

"Employees" is a plural countable noun, so "a few", which modifies countables, is correct. "Much" and "a little" are for uncountables, and "any" is unnatural as the subject of an affirmative statement.

Problem 2

The finance manager reported that there was very ____ money left in the marketing budget after the trade show.

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"Money" is uncountable, so "little", which modifies uncountables, is correct. "Few" and "many" are for countables, and "number" is a noun and does not fit grammatically.

Problem 3

Only ____ of the applicants who were interviewed last week met all of the qualifications for the position.

View explanation

The reference is to "applicants", a plural countable noun, and before "of" the phrase meaning a small number is "a few". "Much" and "little" are for uncountables, and "a great deal" is used with uncountables even when followed by "of".

Problem 4

The logistics team encountered ____ delays at the border, so the shipment arrived three days later than scheduled.

View explanation

"Delays" is a plural countable noun, so "several", which modifies countables, is correct. "Much" and "a little" are for uncountables, and "a great amount" takes "of" and is used with uncountables.

Problem 5

After reviewing the sales figures, the director concluded that ____ improvement had been made during the third quarter.

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"Improvement" is uncountable here, and "little" carries the negative sense of hardly any improvement. "Many", "a few" and "several" are all for countables.

Problem 6

The IT department has installed ____ new firewall to protect the company's servers from cyberattacks.

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"New" begins with the consonant sound /n/, so the indefinite article "a" is correct. "An" precedes vowel sounds, "the" is unnatural for a first, unspecified mention, and "much" cannot modify a singular countable noun.

Problem 7

Passengers were informed that ____ earlier flight to Singapore had been cancelled due to severe weather conditions.

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"Earlier flight" refers to a specific flight, so the definite article "the" is correct. "A" cannot precede the vowel sound /ɜː/ and cannot mark something specific, and "much" and "few" are not articles.

Problem 8

The retail chain opened so ____ new stores this year that it struggled to recruit enough qualified staff.

View explanation

"Stores" is a plural countable noun, so "many", which modifies countables, is correct. "Much", "little" and "a great deal of" are all for uncountables.

Problem 9

The HR coordinator explained that new hires receive ____ hour of orientation before starting their assigned duties.

View explanation

In "hour" the "h" is silent and the word begins with a vowel sound, so the indefinite article "an" is correct. "A" precedes consonant sounds, "the" would mark something specific, and "many" cannot modify a singular countable noun.

Problem 10

The factory supervisor noted that ____ of the machines on the assembly line required immediate maintenance.

View explanation

"Machines" is a plural countable noun, and before "of" the word for a large number is "many". "Much" and "a little" are for uncountables, and "a great deal" takes "of" with uncountables.