Extreme focus on syllabus and studying for tests has become such a dominant…
Extreme focus on syllabus and studying for tests has become such a dominant concern of Indian students that they close their minds to anything ________ to the requirements of the exam.
[This test belongs to Plus Members of KNOWLEDGE GATE]
Answer: B. extraneous — Concept: A sentence-completion question requires choosing the word whose meaning and idiomatic collocation logically complete the sentence — both the semantic…
- A.
related
- B.
extraneous
- C.
outside
- D.
useful
Attempted by 5 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: A sentence-completion question requires choosing the word whose meaning and idiomatic collocation logically complete the sentence — both the semantic contrast the sentence draws and the preposition that follows the blank determine the correct choice.
Application: The sentence describes students who focus so intensely on the syllabus and exam requirements that they mentally shut out anything not needed for the exam ("close their minds to"). The blank must therefore carry the sense "irrelevant/unnecessary" and must idiomatically pair with the following preposition "to". "Extraneous to" is the standard English collocation carrying exactly that sense, so it completes the sentence correctly.
Cross-check — why each other option fails:
related: reverses the logic — the sentence would then say students shut out material connected to the exam requirements, contradicting their described focus ON those requirements.
outside: fails grammatically — "outside" does not idiomatically take the following preposition "to" ("outside to the requirements" is not standard English).
useful: reverses the logic — exam-focused students would seek out, not shut out, anything useful to the exam.
Answer: extraneous.