In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Americans have been arguing about pandemic (1) ________________ for two years, and the debate is particularly fraught among parents of small children, for good reasons. While (2) ____________ such as masking and isolation mean temporary discomfort or inconvenience for most people, their (3) _______________ for still-developing young children are more mysterious, and possibly more significant and lasting. Children with speech or language disorders offer perhaps the (4) _____________ example of these murky trade-offs. Pandemic restrictions vary by state, county and school district, but I spoke with parents in California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Iowa and Maryland, who said their children’s speech therapy has been (5) ______________: first by the loss of in-person therapy and then by masking requirements, in places that have them.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank no. 1
- (a)advantages
- (b)intemperance
- (c)handicap
- (d)restrictions
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The passage answers this blank itself. Its fourth sentence opens 'Pandemic restrictions vary by state, county and school district', reusing the phrase the first sentence sets up.
Sense agrees. What Americans argue over for two years is policy, and the next line names masking and isolation as instances of it.
The slot also wants a plural noun with no article — 'pandemic ______ for two years' — which is what option (d) supplies.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)advantages — Advantages inverts the passage. What follows is discomfort, inconvenience and murky trade-offs, so the thing being argued over is a cost, not a benefit.
- (b)intemperance — Intemperance means a lack of self-restraint, most often in drinking. It names behaviour, not a pandemic policy, and the passage never raises it.
- (c)handicap — Handicap is singular and countable, so the slot would need 'a' in front of it. It also names a disadvantage suffered rather than the rule that causes one.
Concept
A cloze passage is one continuous argument, and each blank is fixed by the sentences around it rather than by which word looks grandest.
Two tests settle most blanks. The echo test: the passage often uses the missing word again nearby, and 'Pandemic restrictions vary by state...' is a direct echo of blank 1.
The grammar test: check article and number. A slot with no article in front of it wants a plural or an uncountable noun, which removes 'handicap' before meaning is weighed at all.
The five blanks come from one passage, so a word chosen for blank 1 has to sit consistently with the choices made for blanks 2 to 5.
Key facts
- The passage names masking and isolation as the disputed things, which fixes blank 1 as policy.
- Restrictions is plural and needs no article, matching the slot 'pandemic ______ for two years'.
- Intemperance means immoderation, most often in drinking.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing 'advantages' because the opening sentence sounds neutral on its own.
- Choosing 'handicap' for its negative feel and ignoring the missing article.
SSC's cloze sets run five consecutive blanks on one passage, marked one blank at a time, as in Q.21 to Q.25 of this shift. Read the whole passage once before answering the first of them.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.