After this incident I went to Nainital, and returned after nearly a month. I had _____ (21) taken _____ (22) my clothes when I saw Gangu standing _____ (23) a new baby. He was _____ (24) with joy. Even Nanda _____ (25) not have _____ (26) such joy _____ (27) getting Krishna. His face had the same _____ (28) that _____ (29) on the face of a _____ (30) man after a full meal. such joy _____ getting Krishna.
- (a)at
- (b)in
- (c)on
- (d)into
Correct — A, at. A noun naming an emotion takes 'at' before the event that causes it — joy at, delight at, surprise at, alarm at — so the clause reads 'could not have felt such joy at getting Krishna'.
- (b)in — 'Joy in' follows a verb, as in 'take joy in' or 'find joy in', and it names the activity a person enjoys rather than the event that sets off the feeling; here 'joy' is a bare noun followed by its cause, which calls for 'at'.
- (c)on — 'On' before an -ing form marks the moment something happens, as in 'on getting Krishna, he ran home', so it attaches to a clause rather than to the noun 'joy'.
- (d)into — 'Into' shows movement or a change of state and has no use after a noun naming an emotion.
English fixes the preposition that follows a noun of emotion, and the cause of the feeling is brought in with 'at'.
Nanda is the cowherd of Gokul in whose home Krishna grew up, so the writer is measuring Gangu's delight in his newborn against the greatest fatherly joy he can name. The grammar is settled before the story is: 'such joy ___ getting Krishna' puts a noun in front of an -ing form, and the link English supplies there is 'at'.
- Joy, delight, surprise, anger and alarm all take 'at' before the event that causes them.
- 'Take joy in' and 'find joy in' place joy after a verb, which is what makes 'in' tempting here.
- 'On' followed by an -ing form means 'as soon as' and belongs to a clause, not to a noun.
- Carrying over the 'in' of 'take joy in' to a bare noun that needs 'at'.
Asked as a cloze blank testing which preposition the noun before it fixes.
The path of progress is beset ________ difficulties.
- (a) with
- (b) by
- (c) through
- (d) along
Answer(a) with
Same skill — the word before the blank decides the preposition, and no general rule of place or time will supply it. There 'beset' fixes 'with'; here the noun 'joy' fixes 'at'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the preposition that best fills the blank — She showed no surprise ____ the news of his sudden transfer.
- (a)in
- (b)at
- (c)on
- (d)into
Answer(b) at — 'surprise' takes 'at' before the event that causes it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the preposition that best fills the blank — He could not hide his anger ____ being kept waiting for two hours.
- (a)at
- (b)in
- (c)on
- (d)for
Answer(a) at — 'anger' takes 'at' before the thing that provokes it.