In the following passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered.…
2025
In the following passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately.
It was a dappled three-storied house, away from the _____(1)_____ alleys of Benaras. There was a profound tranquillity about it. Set in the heart of a lush garden, you could stretch your arms from a window and caress a _____(2)_____ parrot. A small amphitheatre hosted many _____(3)_____ under the starlit sky. And then there was a room with elegant French windows – the taalim room. At least twenty men and women spent hours there, _____(4)_____ in their music. The sitar, slide guitar, vocals, sarod, santoor, tabla – all rising to the didactic call of Ravi Shankar, who sat on a raised platform, singing, playing his sitar, instructing. The Guru would sometimes smile, sometimes frown, but he would not relent until every single disciple who had gathered at Hemangana, from all over the world, had _____(5)_____ his every single musical utterance.
Choose the word that fits blank number (2) most appropriately.
- A.
Scared
- B.
Dubious
- C.
Hostile
- D.
Warm
- E.
Sociable
Attempted by 2 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: E
Concept – how a meaning-based cloze blank is settled.
An adjective placed before a noun must agree with what that noun is shown DOING in the same sentence, and with the overall tone the passage has established. So the test is not ‘which word sounds nice’ but ‘which word’s meaning is entailed by the behaviour described’: read the action in the clause, name the quality that action presupposes, then match that quality to a word.
Applying it to blank (2).
The clause reads: ‘you could stretch your arms from a window and caress a _____ parrot.’ The behaviour described is that a bird stays within reach and permits a stranger to stroke it. The quality this presupposes is friendliness towards people – an ease in human company. The surrounding tone confirms it: the house has ‘a profound tranquillity’ and sits ‘in the heart of a lush garden’, an unhurried and welcoming picture. The word that names exactly that quality is ‘sociable’ – fond of company, readily friendly – so blank (2) takes SOCIABLE. (The passage is taken from Chandrima Pal’s memoir of Ravi Shankar’s Benaras house ‘Hemangana’, where the original line indeed reads ‘caress a sociable parrot’.)
Contrast – why each of the other words fails.
‘Scared’ = frightened. A frightened bird flees an outstretched hand; the caressing described is the very thing fear would rule out.
‘Dubious’ = doubtful, suspicious, of questionable worth. It qualifies judgements and claims (‘a dubious argument’), not a bird’s temperament, and a wary creature would keep its distance.
‘Hostile’ = unfriendly to the point of aggression. A hostile bird would peck or fly at you – the opposite of permitting contact.
‘Warm’ = affectionate in human manner (a warm smile, a warm welcome), or literally warm to the touch. Applied to the parrot it reports body heat, not its readiness to be approached.
Cross-check.
Substitute the chosen word back into the sentence: ‘you could stretch your arms from a window and caress a sociable parrot.’ The adjective and the action now say the same thing – a bird at ease with people lets people touch it – and the sentence keeps the passage’s tranquil register. None of the other four words survives that substitution test.