Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow…
2019
Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct / most appropriate options.
If asked, "What matters are related to health i.e. health decisions ?" most of us would answer – hospitals, doctors and pills. Yet we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health which go beyond this limited area of doctors, pills etc. For example, whether or not to smoke, take exercise, wear a seat belt, drive a motor bike, drink alcohol regularly etc. The way we reach decisions and form attitudes about our health is only just beginning to be understood.
The main paradox is why people consistently do things which are known to be very hazardous. Two interesting examples of this are smoking and not wearing seat belts. Addiction makes smokers keep on smoking and whether to wear a seat belt or not is affected by safety considerations. Taken together both these examples show how people reach decisions about their health. Understanding this process is crucial. Only then can we effectively change public attitude towards voluntary activities like smoking. Smokers run the risk of contracting heart disease, several times more as compared to non-smokers. Even lung cancer. Despite extensive press campaigns which have regularly told smokers and car drivers the grave risks they are running, the number of smokers and non-wearers of seat belts has remained much the same. Although the numbers of deaths from road accidents and smoking are well publicized, they have aroused little public interest.
If we give smokers the real figures of deaths caused by smoking, will it affect their views on the dangers of smoking? Unfortunately not. Many of the real figures are in the form of probable estimates, and evidence shows that people are very bad at understanding this kind of information.
Which part of speech is the underlined word in the following sentence ?
Yet, we are all making a whole range of decisions.
- A.
Adverb
- B.
Conjunction
- C.
Pronoun
- D.
Preposition
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: The word "yet" can play two different grammatical roles: as an ADVERB OF TIME, it attaches to a verb phrase to mark duration or completion, e.g., "She has not left yet" ("has left" is the verb phrase "yet" modifies); as a COORDINATING CONJUNCTION, it links two clauses or ideas that stand in contrast, working exactly like "but" or "however", e.g., "He is rich, yet unhappy." Which role a given "yet" plays depends on whether it is marking the timing or completion of a nearby verb phrase, or connecting two contrasting statements.
Application: In this sentence, the verb phrase is "are all making" — but "Yet" does not mark its duration or completion; there is no sense of "not yet done" or "still ongoing" attached to that verb phrase. Instead, "Yet" opens this sentence right after the passage states that most people would answer only with "hospitals, doctors and pills" when asked about health matters — a narrow view — and the sentence beginning with "Yet" broadens that view: "we are all making a whole range of decisions about our health" beyond that narrow area. That contrastive link back to the previous statement is the role a conjunction plays.
Contrast: Checking each candidate part of speech against this specific use of the word:
Adverb — an adverb of time (as in "has not finished yet") attaches to a verb phrase to mark duration or completion; here, "Yet" sits ahead of the verb phrase "are all making" without marking its duration or completion, so this test does not describe the word's role in this sentence.
Pronoun — pronouns stand in for a specific noun already mentioned; "Yet" does not replace any noun or person here.
Preposition — prepositions relate a following noun or pronoun to another word ("in the room", "about the plan"); "Yet" governs no such noun phrase here.
Conjunction — "Yet" ties the wide range of everyday health decisions in this sentence back to the narrower view (hospitals, doctors, pills) named just before it, exactly as "but" or "however" would connect two contrasting ideas; that linking role confirms it is a conjunction here.
Replacing "Yet" with "But" keeps the sentence grammatically sound and preserves its meaning, confirming the conjunction role. This matches the CTET December 2019 Paper 2 official answer key for this item.