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, four words are suggested, one of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word in each case.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday picked up a broom here to convey his seriousness towards making Uttar Pradesh clean, a day after he expressed regret over the state's poor rating in the cleanliness (1)_________. Accompanied by ministerial colleague Suresh Khanna and other officials, the chief minister arrived at the congested Baloo Addar locality in the heart of the city in Ram Mohan ward and swept the (2)__________. Only one city of the state, Varanasi, had figured in the list of 100 clean cities in the government's 'Swachh Survekshan-2017'. Nine others were among the 15 dirtiest districts in the country with Gonda turning out to be the dirtiest city in India. "Although this survey was taken up before we took over, our government has (3) __________ to work in this area and by December 2017 we aim to declare 30 districts and by October 2018 the entire state open defecation-free," he said in the press conference on Friday. He also gave instructions to the municipal staff present on the (4) ____________ to maintain cleanliness and said it was among the top priorities of the government. "Why is the state capital so dirty? It is a matter of concern as to why Lucknow does not figure in the list of 100 clean cities...make all preparations before the (5) __________ of monsoon to clean the drains so that they do not overflow on the streets."
Find out the appropriate word for blank (2).
Answer: B. streets — Concept: In a cloze passage the missing word is settled by two constraints acting together: collocation, which requires the word to be a natural object of the…
- A.
skies
- B.
streets
- C.
oceans
- D.
ceilings
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: In a cloze passage the missing word is settled by two constraints acting together: collocation, which requires the word to be a natural object of the verb that governs the blank, and context, which requires its meaning to belong to the setting the passage has already established. A candidate is tested against both constraints at once, never against the blank in isolation.
Application: Blank (2) is the object of the verb ‘swept’, and its subject is the chief minister, who has just ‘picked up a broom’ and ‘arrived at the congested Baloo Addar locality in the heart of the city in Ram Mohan ward’.
Read the governing verb: ‘and swept the (2)__________’. Whatever fills the blank must be something a person holding a broom can sweep, so it has to be a surface at ground level.
Read the setting: a congested residential locality inside a city ward, visited in person by the minister. The space is outdoor and urban, neither an interior nor open country.
Take the word that meets both constraints together: the public roads of that locality, that is, streets. The sentence then reads ‘swept the streets’, the ordinary phrasing for a broom-in-hand cleanliness drive.
Cross-check: Cross-check the remaining values against the same two constraints:
skies: the expanse of air overhead, with no ground-level surface for a broom to act on, so the verb ‘swept’ has nothing to take as its object.
oceans: salt-water bodies lying beyond the coast, far from an inland city ward, so the setting established by the passage is not met.
ceilings: interior surfaces above the floor of a room, whereas the minister is described as arriving at an outdoor locality in a ward.
The passage confirms its own vocabulary in the closing line, ‘clean the drains so that they do not overflow on the streets’. The word that fills blank (2) is therefore streets.