In the following passage ten blanks are left out, numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on.…
2025
In the following passage ten blanks are left out, numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. You have to choose a set of words that is correct grammatically and contextually in order to fill the blank.
The Union Cabinet has approved a series of changes in foreign direct investment norms as the government prepares to enter the last lap of its economic policy-setting phase ahead of the 2019 election. Key among these was the decision to _____ 1 _____ up to 49% overseas ownership, including by a foreign airline, in Air India. This comes just a little more than six months after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its nod for a strategic _____ 2 _____ of the airline. The relaxation in ownership norms clears the decks for possible bidders such as the Singapore Airlines-Tata combine and Jet Airways — with its overseas equity and route partners — to make a more detailed commercial _____ 3 _____ of the investment opportunity the state-owned flag carrier presents. For the fiscally constrained government, the _____ 4 _____ couldn’t have come sooner. With the Union Budget due soon and the government _____ 5 _____ short of its budgeted strategic disinvestment goal for the current financial year — as of end-November, only 28% of the targeted ₹15,000 crore had been realised — the hope must be for an _____ 6 _____ timetable for the stake sale. Still, the fulfillment of a necessary condition for a strategic sale doesn’t automatically become sufficient grounds for a successful privatisation. Given the carrier’s accumulated debt of about ₹50,000 crore and the fact that the interest of potential investors is likely to be focused on Air India’s _____ 7 _____ long-haul international routes and its fleet of more than 40 wide-bodied aircraft, disinvestment will be neither easy nor guaranteed. At the very least, the government needs to set a distinct, _____ 8 _____ road map for the sale process. The other reform cleared by the Cabinet was the _____ 9 _____ decision to put 100% FDI in Single Brand Retail Trading under the ‘automatic’ route, accompanied by the long-sought relaxation of mandatory local sourcing norms. This had been a major issue with potential investors including Apple, which had repeatedly urged the government to take a more _____ 10 _____ view given the level of technological advancement incorporated in its products and the difficulty in finding local sources of supply at the requisite scale.
Choose a set of words that is correct grammatically and contextually in order to fill the blank 4
(question no 1 till 10 are linked together)
- A.
impact, effect
- B.
verdict, protocol
- C.
decision, conclusion
- D.
negotiation, dialogue
Attempted by 3 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
In a vocabulary-based cloze blank, the correct word must match two things at once: the grammatical slot, and the specific meaning already established by the surrounding co-text — usually an event or development the passage has already named, not a generic word that merely sounds plausible in isolation.
The sentence reads: “For the fiscally constrained government, the _____ couldn't have come sooner.” This refers back to what the passage just described — the Cabinet's approval relaxing Air India's ownership norms to allow up to 49% foreign holding. That is a completed, formal government action, which is precisely what “decision” names. Reading it in: “the decision couldn't have come sooner” — the timing of this decision is fortunate for a government under fiscal pressure that needs the disinvestment sale to proceed and bring in revenue.
Checking the distractors confirms this by elimination on their own terms:
“impact, effect” name a result or consequence, not the completed action itself — too vague for what the passage describes.
“verdict, protocol” suggest a legal ruling or a formal rulebook, neither of which matches a Cabinet policy approval.
“negotiation, dialogue” describe an unresolved, ongoing process, but the passage has not mentioned any negotiation or dialogue as the thing this blank points back to — only the Cabinet’s completed approval — so neither word matches what the sentence is actually referring to.
In this set, “decision” directly names that completed formal action; “conclusion” is a compatible near-synonym for a settled outcome, so the pairing holds together, while every other set contains at least one word whose meaning or register does not match — so “decision, conclusion” correctly fills blank 4.