Direction : In the following passage, some of the words have been left out.…
2024
Direction : In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. First read the passage over and try to understand what it is about. Then fill in the blanks with the help of the alternatives given.
More than 8 lakh people have been displaced in Kerala, as the death toll from the worst flooding to hit the southern Indian state jumped to at least 370, with losses to infrastructure _________ at almost $3bn. As the rains subsided on Sunday, relief efforts focused on rescuing those marooned in isolated places for days and airdropping supplies to others, police and officials said. Kerala has been lashed by torrential monsoon rains since the end of May, triggering landslides and flash floods that have swept away entire villages. Incessant downpours since August 8 have killed more than 190 people and left thousands more stranded.
Focus blank: "...with losses to infrastructure _________ at almost $3bn."
- A.
arrogated
- B.
rebuffed
- C.
pegged
- D.
pulled
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Concept: In a meaning-based (vocabulary) cloze blank, the correct word is the one whose dictionary sense and everyday collocation match what the surrounding sentence needs — a blank sitting between 'losses to infrastructure' and a following amount ('at almost $3bn') calls for a verb meaning 'to fix, set, or assess a value at a particular level.' Words from unrelated senses or semantic fields are used as distractors.
Application: The target sentence reads 'losses to infrastructure _________ at almost $3bn.' 'Peg' carries exactly this value-fixing sense — to 'peg' a figure 'at' a level means to fix or estimate it there, the standard idiom financial and news reporting uses for stating a loss or price ('losses pegged at $3bn', 'the rupee was pegged at a fixed rate'). This matches the original Al Jazeera report on the 2018 Kerala floods, which states losses were 'pegged at almost $3bn.'
Cross-check — why the other options do not fit:
The word meaning to claim or seize something without any right or justification describes an act of unjust taking, not a way of expressing a numeric estimate; it cannot combine with 'at [an amount]'.
The word meaning to reject or turn down something in a blunt, ungracious way describes a rejection, which carries no dollar figure of its own, so it cannot be followed by 'at almost $3bn'.
The word describing a physical dragging or tugging motion carries no sense of fixing or estimating a monetary value.
Result: Only the value-fixing sense fits both the sentence's grammar (verb + at + amount) and its meaning (stating an estimated financial loss), so that is the correct fill for the blank.