Once the ________ manuscript is received by the publishers, it is typed in double space.
- (a)total
- (b)full
- (c)complete
- (d)filled
Answer
Why
Correct: C, complete. 'Complete' means having every part, with nothing left out, which is exactly the condition a publisher waits for before the typing begins. A complete manuscript is one in which no chapter, note or page is still missing, and 'Once … is received' tells you the sentence is about that moment of nothing-more-to-come.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)total: 'Total' answers 'how much altogether' and belongs with amounts and figures: the total cost, the total number of pages. It does not mean 'with no part missing', which is the sense the sentence needs.
- (b)full: 'Full' means holding as much as it can, and before a noun it usually means 'to the maximum' rather than 'entire'. A full manuscript would suggest one crammed with something, not one that is finished.
- (d)filled: 'Filled' is a past participle that normally needs to say what the thing was filled with. Standing alone before 'manuscript' it is not idiomatic English and says nothing about the work being finished.
Concept
A cloze item separating four near-synonyms of 'whole', where only one of them carries the sense 'with no part missing'.
Group the options by the question each one answers. 'Total' answers how much; 'full' answers how much of the capacity is used; 'filled' answers what has been put in. Only 'complete' answers whether anything is still missing, and that is the question a publisher is asking about a manuscript. The word 'Once' at the head of the sentence reinforces it: the process starts only after the last piece arrives.
Key facts
- 'Complete' means having all necessary parts; as a verb it means to finish.
- 'Total' is used of sums and quantities: the total amount, the total number.
- 'Full' means filled to capacity, as in a full glass or a full bus.
- Double spacing is the standard way a manuscript is presented so that an editor has room to mark corrections.
Study next
Common traps
- Treating complete, total and full as interchangeable words for 'all of it'.
- Choosing a participle that needs a completing phrase the sentence does not give.
Asked as a one-blank sentence in which four near-synonyms compete and only one has the required sense of nothing being left out.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice, not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best completes the sentence: The ________ cost of the project rose to five crore rupees.
- (a)complete
- (b)filled
- (c)total
- (d)full
Answer(c) total: cost is a quantity, and total is the adjective used with sums and amounts. - practice, not a real PYQ
'Complete' as used in the sentence above means
- (a)filled to the brim
- (b)with no part missing
- (c)added up
- (d)recently written
Answer(b) with no part missing, that is the sense a publisher needs before work can start.