In each of the following sentences, a word is missing and replaced by a blank.…

Concept

This is a contextual vocabulary item: the right word must match both the grammar of the sentence (a noun is needed after the preposition "into") and the connotation set up by the surrounding clues. "Threw the entire city into ___" is a fixed collocation that takes a noun denoting a disordered, out-of-control state, and the trailing clue "traffic jams and confused crowds" signals disorder, not order or improvement.

Application

1. Identify the slot: after "into" the sentence needs a noun, so any adjective or verb is ruled out on grammar alone.

2. Read the connotation clue: a sudden power outage producing "traffic jams and confused crowds" describes complete disorder.

3. Match meaning to slot: "chaos" is a noun meaning a state of total confusion and disorder, and "throw a city into chaos" is the natural collocation, so it fits both the grammar and the negative, disordered tone.

Contrast

• "concur" is a verb meaning to agree; it is the wrong part of speech for the noun slot and carries no sense of disorder.

• "growth" is a noun but has a positive, constructive connotation, the opposite of the confusion the sentence describes.

• "peculiar" is an adjective meaning strange or unusual; an adjective cannot fill the noun slot after "into".

• "nascent" is an adjective meaning just beginning to develop; it is the wrong part of speech and describes emergence, not breakdown.

Result: the word that satisfies the noun slot and the disorder clue is "chaos".