Scientific innovation practice questions.

Choose the correct word: 'After years of research, the team finally made an important scientific ___.'

• breakthrough
• breakdown
• breakout
• breakup

Answer: breakthrough

A 'breakthrough' is a sudden, important discovery or advance; the other 'break-' compounds have unrelated meanings.

Choose the correct passive form: 'Penicillin ___ by Alexander Fleming in 1928.'

• discovered
• was discovered
• has discovered
• is discovering

Answer: was discovered

A completed past action with the doer introduced by 'by' takes the past simple passive 'was discovered'.

Choose the correct linking word: 'The vaccine was effective; ___, some patients reported mild side effects.'

• therefore
• however
• because
• so

Answer: however

'However' introduces a contrast between the vaccine's effectiveness and the side effects; the other connectors express cause or result.

Choose the word that best completes the sentence: 'Many people have ___ concerns about the ethics of cloning animals.'

• raised
• risen
• arisen
• arose

Answer: raised

'Raise concerns' is the fixed collocation using the transitive verb 'raise'; 'rise/arise' are intransitive and cannot take 'concerns' as an object.

Choose the correct form: 'If scientists ___ a cure, millions of lives will be saved.'

• will find
• found
• find
• would find

Answer: find

The first conditional (real future possibility) uses the present simple in the 'if' clause: 'If scientists find ... lives will be saved'.

Choose the correct option: 'The team succeeded ___ a working prototype in under a year.'

• to develop
• developing
• for develop
• in developing

Answer: in developing

'Succeed' takes 'in' plus the -ing form. Compare 'manage to do' and 'be able to do', which take the infinitive — the meaning is close but the pattern is not.