The honeybee is a very unusual kind of insect. _____ (46) other insects which live alone, the honeybee lives as a/an _____ (47) of a community. These bees live together in what is known as a bee _____ (48) The head of the bees is called the queen bee. She is _____ (49) than the rest of the bees. Her main task is to _____ (50) eggs. The honeybee is a very unusual kind of insect. _____ other insects which live alone,
- (a)Unlike
- (b)Similar to
- (c)With
- (d)Like
Correct — A, Unlike. The sentence before the blank calls the honeybee 'a very unusual kind of insect', and the two halves that follow are opposites, since other insects 'live alone' while the honeybee 'lives as a member of a community'. Only a word of contrast can join them, and 'Unlike' is the one contrast word in the list.
- (b)Similar to — This asserts a likeness, which contradicts both the word 'unusual' in the previous sentence and the plain opposition between living alone and living in a community.
- (c)With — 'With other insects which live alone' would place the honeybee among the solitary insects, which is the reverse of what the rest of the sentence says.
- (d)Like — This is the tempting twin of the answer and states a resemblance instead of a contrast, but the passage has just said the honeybee is unusual, so a resemblance is exactly what is being denied.
A cloze item in which the linking word must carry the contrast that the surrounding sentences have already set up.
In a cloze passage the sentence before the blank often does more work than the sentence containing it. Here the word 'unusual' has already announced that a difference is coming, and the blank simply has to deliver it. Both 'Like' and 'Similar to' are traps for a reader who starts at the blank instead of at the sentence before it.
- 'Unlike' works as a preposition and takes a noun directly after it, as in 'Unlike other insects, the honeybee…'.
- Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies, which is the contrast the passage is drawing against insects that live singly.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that fits — _____ her sister, who is quiet and shy, Meera loves being on stage.
- (a)Like
- (b)Unlike
- (c)With
- (d)As
Answer(b) Unlike — the two sisters are being contrasted, not compared.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that fits — Most reptiles lay eggs; _____ , a few species give birth to live young.
- (a)similarly
- (b)therefore
- (c)however
- (d)besides
Answer(c) however — the second half reverses the first.