The tired traveller ________ on in the hope of finding some resting place.
- (a)strolled
- (b)scurried
- (c)paraded
- (d)plodded
Correct — D, plodded. To plod is to walk slowly and heavily, with an effort, and to keep going anyway. Every word in the sentence points that way — the traveller is tired, he is still moving 'on', and he is doing it in the hope of something rather than in any certainty of it. That combination of weariness and dogged persistence is exactly what 'plod' carries, and none of the other three verbs carries it.
- (a)strolled — To stroll is to walk in a slow, relaxed, unhurried way for pleasure. The slowness fits, but the pleasure and the leisure do not — a tired man searching for somewhere to rest is not enjoying the walk.
- (b)scurried — To scurry is to move with short, quick, hurried steps, the way a mouse crosses a floor. It suggests energy and haste, which contradicts 'tired'.
- (c)paraded — To parade is to march or walk in a formal display, or to show oneself off. It needs an audience and a purpose of display, neither of which the sentence supplies.
A cloze item on manner-of-walking verbs, where all four choices mean 'to walk' but differ in speed, effort and mood.
English has a large family of verbs that all mean 'walk' and are separated only by how the walking is done. Read the whole sentence for the two clues that fix the manner — here 'tired' rules out anything quick or showy, and 'on … in the hope of' rules out anything leisurely, because the man is pushing forward with effort. What is left is the heavy, weary trudging that 'plod' names.
- To plod is to walk slowly and heavily, and by extension to work at something slowly and doggedly.
- To scurry is to move with short quick steps; to stroll is to walk slowly for pleasure; to parade is to walk in display.
- Other verbs in the same family are trudge, amble, saunter, stride, shuffle and stagger.
- Picking any word that means 'walk' without checking whether its speed and mood match the sentence.
- Ignoring 'tired', which is the single word that decides this item.
Asked as a one-blank sentence in which all four options are near-synonyms and only the connotation separates them.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best completes the sentence — The children ________ across the field, laughing all the way.
- (a)plodded
- (b)trudged
- (c)scampered
- (d)limped
Answer(c) scampered — it means to run with quick light steps, which matches children who are laughing.
- practice — not a real PYQ
To 'trudge' most nearly means
- (a)to walk with tired heavy steps
- (b)to run swiftly
- (c)to walk on tiptoe
- (d)to march in step
Answer(a) to walk with tired heavy steps — trudge is a close cousin of plod.