In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an (1) _________ by the Government of India to celebrate and remember 75 years of independence and the beautiful history of its people, culture and achievements. This Mahotsav is (2) _________ to the people of India, who have not only been instrumental in bringing India this far in its evolutionary journey but also (3) _________ the power and potential to realise Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's (4) _________ of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The formal journey of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav began on 12 March 2021, beginning a (5)______ to our 75th anniversary of independence and will finish a year later on 15 August 2023.
Select the most appropriate answer for blank number 2.%
- (a)refused
- (b)dedicated
- (c)withhold
- (d)alienated
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The slot is is ___ to the people of India — a passive, with the preposition to already printed.
Dedicate something to someone is the collocation for offering a work or an occasion in a person's honour.
The clause that follows praises those people for bringing India this far, so an honouring verb is what the sentence has been built for — option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)refused — Refused reverses the sense. It would say the Mahotsav is denied to Indians, while the rest of the sentence credits them with bringing India this far.
- (c)withhold — Fails on form before you reach its meaning. After is the slot needs a past participle, withheld, not the base form withhold.
- (d)alienated — Alienated takes from, not to, and means estranged. Neither the preposition nor the sense of driving people away fits a celebration held in their honour.
Concept
Two things decide a verb blank inside a passive: form and collocation.
Form first. After is, the slot needs a past participle, which removes a base form like withhold before its meaning is even weighed.
Collocation second. Dedicated pairs with to, alienated pairs with from. Checking which preposition is already printed in the sentence often settles a blank faster than rereading the passage.
The sentence is long and the praise sits in the relative clause after the blank, so a reader who stops at the comma has not yet seen the evidence that decides the answer.
Key facts
- Dedicate takes to, as in a book or a day dedicated to someone.
- Alienate takes from, as in alienated from a community.
- A passive needs a form of be plus the past participle, so withhold becomes withheld.
Study next
Common traps
- Weighing meanings first and never noticing that withhold is the wrong form.
- Ignoring the to already printed beside the blank, which alienated cannot take.
A verb blank standing next to a printed preposition can usually be settled by that preposition alone. The same passage supplies the other blanks at English Q.21, Q.23, Q.24 and Q.25 of this paper.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.