In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. The beginning of the story is (1)______ in its presentation but (2)______ the style eases out and becomes haunting in its simplicity. The author brings out the human elements in his story. This common element of sympathy and sacrifice is given a new (3)_____ by the old artist who shows by his last desperate act that one can be a hero for one day if only one cares (4)______. O Henry’s treatment of his material is balanced and controlled, a fine (5)______ of humour and pathos.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 3.
- (a)infection
- (b)condition
- (c)supervision
- (d)dimension
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The set phrase in play is give a new dimension to something — to add a further aspect or a new depth to it. Here what receives it is an abstract element, sympathy and sacrifice.
The old artist's act does not turn that element into something else; it opens a fresh facet of it, which is precisely what a new dimension means in English.
Given a new dimension by the old artist → option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)infection — Infection is the invasion of a host by a pathogen. It is a physical, medical noun, and an abstract element such as sympathy cannot be given one.
- (b)condition — Condition means a state, or a stipulation. Given a new condition reads as imposing a term, which is not what a heroic act does to a theme in a story.
- (c)supervision — Supervision is oversight of work or of people. Sympathy and sacrifice are not tasks being watched over, so the noun has nothing here to attach itself to.
Concept
Some cloze blanks are collocation tests: the words around the blank belong to a set phrase, and one noun completes it.
Give a new dimension to is such a phrase, used of ideas, themes and debates, and it means adding depth or an unexpected aspect.
Test each candidate by putting it back in the frame. A new condition, a new infection and a new supervision are all grammatical strings — none of them says what the sentence needs, which is that an old theme has been deepened.
Dimension also has a literal sense — length, breadth, height — and SSC uses the gap between the two.
In a comprehension blank the figurative sense is usually the one wanted, so read what the blank serves: an element of sympathy and sacrifice can be deepened, not measured.
Key facts
- To give a new dimension to something is to add a further aspect or depth to it.
- Dimension carries a literal measurement sense as well as the figurative sense of an aspect.
- All four options here are nouns, so collocation decides the blank rather than part of speech.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing condition because it is the commonest noun of the four.
- Testing options for grammar when every option is a noun and sense alone separates them.
When a cloze blank offers four words of the same class, the item has stopped being a grammar question and become a collocation question.
Contrast 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.22, where the law of the (2)_______ beasts takes forest-living over life, forest-lived and alive.
There the options are not all one class — life is a noun — and forest-living beats forest-lived on active against passive participle form. Word class and grammar settle that blank before collocation is reached.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.