In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Appearances may not reveal the man. So, you shouldn't make (1) _________ about a man's character based on how he (2) _________ . People smile and smile, yet prove to be (3) _________ . On the other hand, people with rough exteriors prove to be the (4) _________ and most considerate people on earth. They are the people who are beautiful from (5) _________ .
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.(
- (a)deficient
- (b)ascend
- (c)assumptions
- (d)derivations
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The blank is the object of the verb make, and the collocation English fixes on is make assumptions about someone: "you shouldn't make assumptions about a man's character".
The sentence before it sets the sense — "Appearances may not reveal the man" — which is judging in advance on thin evidence. That is what an assumption is.
Grammar narrows it before meaning does. make needs a noun object, which removes two options outright, and of the two nouns left only option (c) fits the sense.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)deficient — deficient is an adjective meaning lacking in something. Make deficient about is not English, so the word fails on grammar before its meaning is even weighed.
- (b)ascend — ascend is a verb meaning to climb or rise. It cannot serve as the object of make, and nothing in the passage is about rising.
- (d)derivations — derivations is a plural noun, so it passes the grammar test, but a derivation is something traced back to a source, most often a word's origin. You do not make derivations about a person's character.
Concept
A cloze blank is solved with two filters, applied in that order.
First the grammatical filter: what word class can stand in the slot? Here the slot is the object of make, so only a noun qualifies, and an adjective and a verb drop out at once.
Then the collocation filter: which surviving noun does English actually pair with this verb? Make assumptions is fixed, like make a decision or make an effort. Derivations is a noun of the right shape that no one pairs with make in this sense.
Both surviving options are abstract plural nouns of similar length, so a candidate matching on form alone has a coin-flip. The collocation is what decides it.
Key facts
- Make assumptions about is a fixed collocation meaning to judge without evidence.
- An assumption is something accepted as true without proof.
- A derivation is the tracing of something back to its origin, most often a word's origin.
- Deficient is an adjective and ascend is a verb, so neither can be the object of make.
Study next
Common traps
- Reading the blank for meaning alone and never asking which word class the slot allows.
- Picking derivations because it is a plural noun of the right shape, without testing whether make derivations about is real English.
An SSC cloze block gives one short passage with five numbered blanks, each scored as its own question — here English Q21 to Q25 of this shift, all off the same passage. The 11 Sep 2024, 09:00 and 12 Sep 2024, 09:00 shifts carry the same five-blank format at their own English Q21 to Q25.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.