In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. People often say that the stars govern their fate but they forget the fact that success or failure is the result of one’s own (1)________. If we sow chaff, we can’t reap grain; and the result or consequence of an action depends on what one does and to the extent he (2)________ it. If we work hard, we succeed only to the extent that we work. People who think that the law of karma is (3)________ may feel that if one is destined to get something he will always get it whether he strives for it or not. But experience tells us that reward and punishments are the direct result of our action. Honesty and hard work never go unrewarded and (4)________ and evil deeds never go (5)________. In fact even the law of karma, in its proper sense, means that the fruit we get is decided by whatever actions we did in the past.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)incidents
- (b)case
- (c)power
- (d)actions
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The sentence is built on a contrast. People say the stars govern their fate, 'but they forget the fact that success or failure is the result of one's own ______'.
After that 'but', the blank has to name something the person themselves supplies, not something that happens to them.
The passage then says it outright, twice: 'the result or consequence of an action depends on what one does', and at the close, 'the fruit we get is decided by whatever actions we did in the past'.
That repeated word is the answer — actions, option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)incidents — Incidents are things that happen to a person. That belongs on the fate side of the contrast, which is the side the sentence has just rejected.
- (b)case — Case names a situation, not a cause, and 'one's own case' would leave the sentence with nothing at all to explain success or failure.
- (c)power — Power is the tempting one, because it sounds like self-reliance. But the passage argues from doing and working — 'if we work hard, we succeed only to the extent that we work' — never from ability.
Concept
A cloze blank is settled by the paragraph, not by the sentence holding it. Read all five blanks before filling the first.
Two signals carry most of the weight. The first is contrast: 'but' promises the opposite of what came before, so a blank after it must reverse the earlier idea.
The second is lexical echo: the words 'action', 'does' and 'actions' run right through this paragraph, and the blank is filled by the very word the passage goes on to repeat.
The passage is about the law of karma, so fate and destiny language is planted early to pull you towards an external cause. The argument actually runs the other way.
Key facts
- The 'but' in the opening sentence forces the blank to contrast with the stars governing fate.
- The passage restates its own answer as 'what one does' and as 'whatever actions we did in the past'.
- In a five-blank cloze a later sentence can decide an earlier blank, so read to the end before answering blank 1.
Study next
Common traps
- Filling blank 1 before reading the closing sentence, which names the answer outright.
- Choosing 'power' because the paragraph sounds like it is about self-reliance.
Every one of the 35 CGL 2024 Tier-I shift banks on disk carries a five-blank cloze at English Q.21 to Q.25, so the format itself is fixed and worth drilling.
A blank decided by the paragraph's argument rather than by grammar is keyed the same way at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, EC Q.21, where 'we naturally seek the company of those whose (1)____ are the same as our own' takes tastes.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.