In the passage given below there are 10 blanks, each followed by a word given…
2026
In the passage given below there are 10 blanks, each followed by a word given in bold. Each blank has four alternative words given in options (A),(B),(C) and (D). You have to tell which word will best suit the respective blank. Mark (E) as your answer if the word given in bold after the blank is your answer i.e “No change required”.
The increasing cost of higher education in the United States has been a --(1)---(contrast) topic for debate in recent decades. American society - --(2)---(denigrate) the importance of education after high school, yet the cost of undergraduate and advanced degrees continually rises at a greater rate than ---(3)----(inflammation). According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, cost factors prevent 48% of college-qualified high school graduates from pursuing further education (McKeon, 2004, p. 45). The current system requires the majority of students to ---- (4)----(dissipate) extensive debt with the expectation that they gain ----(5)---- (unprofitable) post-graduate employment to repay their loans.
Which word will best suit the respective blank 5
(question no 11 till 15 are linked together )
- A.
lascivious
- B.
luscious
- C.
lucrative
- D.
capricious
Attempted by 2 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a vocabulary-based cloze test, the word chosen for a blank must preserve the logical sense the surrounding sentence is building, even when the bolded cue word after the blank points in the wrong direction — the correct choice is the word that keeps the sentence's cause-and-effect relationship intact.
Application: The sentence states that students take on “extensive debt with the expectation that they gain ___ post-graduate employment to repay their loans.” Repaying a loan requires income, so the missing word must describe employment that generates strong income — the opposite sense of the bolded cue word “unprofitable”. Among the options, lucrative (yielding a great deal of profit) is the only word that supplies this profit-generating sense and keeps the sentence logically coherent.
None of the other options resolve the debt-repayment logic the way lucrative does:
lascivious relates to sexual desire, a domain unrelated to income or employment.
luscious describes something rich to taste or appealing to the senses, typically food, not income.
capricious describes unpredictable or whimsical behaviour, not financial return.
Hence lucrative is the word that best completes the sentence.