In the following passage, some of the words have been left out, each of which…
2025
In the following passage, some of the words have been left out, each of which is indicated by a letter. Find the suitable word from the options given against each letter and fill up the blanks with appropriate words to make the paragraph meaningful.
This year, the world’s largest democracy, India, and the biggest country by _____ 1_____ , Russia, are celebrating the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between them. Russia continues to be among India’s major politico-diplomatic and defence partner nations. While India has _____ 2 _____ separate strategic partnership pacts with more than two dozen countries, the Indian and Russian governments in December 2010 _____3_____ their bilateral ‘Strategic Partnership’ to what they termed a “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.” The New Delhi-based _____4 _____ ‘Foundation for National Security Research’, which did a comparative assessment of India’s strategic partnerships — meaning, ‘political-diplomatic, defence and economic cooperation’ (during the 10-year period prior to November 2011), had said, “Russia emerges as the most important strategic partner of India (followed by the U.S., France, the U.K., Germany and Japan in that order).” The November 2011 report had found that Russia had provided strong political and diplomatic support to India and helped enormously in building India’s defence capability. However, it warned that the “economic content of the (India-Russia) partnership is extremely weak, ” and recommended that “urgent and _____5_____ steps need to be taken to improve economic relations if this (India-Russia) partnership is to be sustained and made durable.”
Find the appropriate word in each case 1
( Question no 1 till 5 are linked together )
- A.
Population
- B.
Density
- C.
Area
- D.
Democracy
Attempted by 3 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a vocabulary-based cloze test, you must pick the word that captures the exact sense and grammatical role of the missing slot — not merely a word related to the topic. The frame “biggest country by ___” calls for a noun naming a measurable physical attribute on which countries can be ranked by size.
Application: The blank sits inside “the biggest country by ___, Russia” — a comparison of nations on some measurable quantity. Russia’s most-cited superlative is its vast land Area (about 17 million square kilometres, the largest of any country), not its Population (India and China both have larger populations) and not its Density (which is in fact quite low, precisely because its area is so large). “Area” is the noun that matches both the grammar of “by ___” and the well-known geographical fact being referenced.
Population — counts the number of people in a country; India and China both have larger populations than Russia, so this word cannot support the sentence's “biggest” claim.
Density — counts people per unit of land; Russia's is in fact quite low, so this word does not fit the sentence's “biggest” claim either.
Democracy — names a system of government, not something being ranked or compared elsewhere in this sentence, so it cannot complete this particular comparison.
Result: “Area” is the correct completion — both grammatically and factually.