Direction: Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer to each…

2024

Direction: Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer to each question out of the four alternatives and fill in the blanks

In September 2015, the leaders of 193 countries agreed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – the most (1)….plan ever to promote human development – by 2030. Nearly two years into the process, there are plenty of reasons for concern: the amount of financing raised so far is unlikely to be sufficient, and not all countries have (2)….data to measure progress on the ground. It is enough to test even the most diehard (3)….But there is still plenty of reason for hope. I recently visited Colombia, which, at long last, is leaving behind its decades-long civil conflict with the (4)….Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and setting itself up for SDG success. In any country, achieving the SDGs will require government, business, aid agencies, multilateral banks, and civil society to work together, adopt flexible approaches, share knowledge, measure progress effectively, and recognize that the various targets are interconnected. Colombia seems to understand this, and is (5)….an (6)…. approach that leverages the strengths of each actor. Start with government. According to Colombia’s finance minister, Mauricio Cárdenas Santamaría, the country is localizing the SDGs through the planning department, using the SDG framework to guide reforms relating to the implementation of the peace agreement with the FARC, OECD (7)…., the National Development Plan, and the Paris climate agreement. Meanwhile, Cárdenas points out, Colombia’s policymakers are taking care to highlight the benefits of these efforts – in areas ranging from health care and education to employment – for the public. They recognize that a top-down approach will not work: to achieve the SDGs, all levels of the government, economy, and society must feel connected to the goals, understanding the (8)….impact that achieving them will have.To get business on board, the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, led by Monica de Greiff, is raising awareness of the SDGs among its 640,000 members and providing skills training in sectors like construction and health care. The aim is to achieve the SDGs’ targets while increasing the economy’s overall competitiveness. The good news is that, as Bruce MacMaster of the Bogotá-based business advocacy and think tank ANDI noted, businesses have a strong incentive to (9)….the gains of the peace process, especially in remote areas that have (10)….been cut off from government services. And, indeed, in Medellín, once the illicit drug capital of the world, the leaders of small and large businesses with whom I met are already integrating the SDGs into their business plans and supply chains.

Find the appropriate word in case 8

  1. A.

    prominent

  2. B.

    eminent

  3. C.

    concrete

  4. D.

    bizarre

Attempted by 2 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C

Concept: In a vocabulary-based cloze blank, the right word must not only make sense in isolation - it must form a natural, idiomatic collocation with the noun it modifies, matching both the meaning and the tone of the surrounding text.

Application: Blank (8) modifies the noun "impact" in the phrase "understanding the (8) impact that achieving them will have." The passage describes a top-down vs. bottom-up rollout of the SDGs, where every level of government, economy, and society needs to grasp a real, tangible, on-the-ground effect of the goals - not an abstract or symbolic one. "Concrete impact" is the standard English collocation for exactly this idea: a tangible, material, real-world effect (as opposed to something abstract).

Cross-check - contrasting the other options by value:

  • "prominent impact" - prominent describes something that stands out or is well-known (a prominent leader, a prominent building); it does not carry the tangible/material sense the sentence needs, so it does not fit the meaning of an impact people can feel and act on.

  • "eminent impact" - eminent is reserved for distinguished people or their standing (an eminent scientist); pairing it with an abstract noun like "impact" is not idiomatic English usage.

  • "bizarre impact" - bizarre means strange or odd; it clashes with the passage's serious, encouraging tone about development progress and would make the sentence read as if the impact were somehow abnormal, which contradicts the context.

"Concrete" is the only option whose value both fits the meaning (tangible, real) and forms a correct collocation with "impact," so it is the correct fit for blank (8).

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