Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blanks. They needed ______…

Articles mark whether a singular countable noun refers to any one example of its kind or to one specific, already-identified example: the indefinite article 'a'/'an' introduces a noun for the first time or when it could be any instance, while the definite article 'the' is used when the noun is a particular one already established in the speaker's or listener's mind.

In this sentence, 'peaceful place' is being mentioned for the first time and is not any particular location — any calm place would satisfy the need — so it takes the indefinite article: 'a peaceful place'. The article before 'meeting' is not fixed by the sentence's grammar alone: in isolation, either 'a meeting' (introducing a meeting for the first time) or 'the meeting' (referring to one specific meeting already in the speakers' minds) is grammatically possible. Exam usage for this fill-in-the-blank pattern — where the noun is the object of a purpose infinitive describing what the subject is already setting out to do ('to hold ___ meeting') — conventionally reads it as the one specific meeting being organized, taking 'the'. This matches the officially released answer key for this DSSSB TGT (English) exam: 'a peaceful place to hold the meeting.'

• 'the; a' reverses the roles needed here: it would require 'place' to already be identified before it is even introduced, and would read 'meeting' as one among many rather than the specific event 'they' are organizing — the opposite of the exam's intended (and officially keyed) reading.

• 'a; no article required' leaves the singular countable noun 'meeting' with no determiner at all, which is ungrammatical in this position.

• 'no article required; the' leaves the singular countable noun 'place' with no determiner at all, which is ungrammatical in this position.