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. 2
- (a)measures
- (b)brandings
- (c)models
- (d)sluggishness
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The blank is the subject of the plural verb mean, and the passage defines it on the spot: 'such as masking and isolation'.
Masking and isolation are steps taken against a disease, and the English category word for steps taken is measures.
Option (a) also passes the number test — 'measures ... mean' agrees, where a singular noun would need 'means'.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)brandings — Brandings is not a word English uses for policy. Branding concerns the name and image given to a product, and masking is neither.
- (c)models — Models are representations or designs, as in an economic model. Masking and isolation are things done, not things that stand for something else.
- (d)sluggishness — Sluggishness is an uncountable abstract noun. It cannot be exemplified by masking and isolation, and it cannot take the plural verb 'mean'.
Concept
When a cloze blank is followed by such as, the passage has handed you the definition. Whatever fills the blank must be the category the examples belong to.
Here the examples are masking and isolation — deliberate steps taken against a disease — and measures is the category word for steps taken.
The verb narrows it further. 'Mean' without an -s is a plural form, so a singular or uncountable noun cannot fill the slot, which removes 'sluggishness' on grammar alone.
The sentence opens with 'While', setting up a contrast that is completed in blank 3: mild costs for most people, unclear costs for young children.
Key facts
- 'Such as' introduces examples of the noun immediately before it.
- Measures means steps or actions taken to achieve an end, as in public-health measures.
- A bare plural verb form such as 'mean' requires a plural subject.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking 'models' because it sounds academic and fits many exam sentences.
- Testing meaning only and never checking the plural verb 'mean'.
A cloze blank set right before 'such as' or an appositive turns a vocabulary question into a category question, which is what happens here. Blank 4 of this same passage, Q.24, is likewise settled by what surrounds it rather than by dictionary depth.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.