In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Sleeping, dreaming and waking are three important (1)_______ for ordinary humans. But for those who have (2)_______ transcendental knowledge, all three are almost same and there is not much difference among these three. ‘The world and life is a myth and it keeps on changing’ (3)_______ Adi Shankaracharya, the greatest ‘Advaita’ preacher. Ramana Maharshi observed no difference between dreaming and waking states. What he said is that it is from one unreal world to another (4)_______ world. There is no difference between the images one sees when waking up and the images he/she sees during dreams. According to this great sage of the modern century, the first one is daydream and the second one is a night dream. The usual philosophers say that mind and body are the two elements and mind is the source of all diverse thoughts. In the waking up state, the mind is active with all tensions and dissatisfactions, so happiness is missing: during sleep as the mind is absent and so is the physical world, the real happiness (5)______. It is said that deep sleep, where there is no feeling of body, mind and the world, is the natural state of human beings.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 2.
- (a)deep
- (b)depth
- (c)superficial
- (d)large
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The slot sits between have and the noun phrase transcendental knowledge, so it needs an adjective that can premodify a noun.
Deep is that adjective, and deep knowledge is the standard English collocation for understanding that goes past the surface.
The sense agrees with the grammar: someone whose understanding runs deep is precisely who would see sleeping, dreaming and waking as almost same. Option (a) satisfies the word class and the argument at once.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)depth — Depth is the noun formed from deep. Have depth transcendental knowledge is not English — this slot wants the adjective, whatever sense was intended.
- (c)superficial — Superficial means shallow, which reverses the passage's point. A surface acquaintance would not let anyone treat the three states as almost same.
- (d)large — Large measures size or quantity and does not pair with knowledge; English says deep, wide or vast knowledge, so the phrase would read as translated rather than idiomatic.
Concept
Two of the four options here are one word in different clothes — deep the adjective and depth the noun. That is a word-class test hiding inside a vocabulary blank.
Settle the class first. A slot standing before a noun phrase and after have wants an adjective, which removes depth before meaning is considered at all.
Then use the sentence's logic on the adjectives that survive. The clause exists to set the enlightened against ordinary humans, so the adjective has to be a strong one, not a dismissive one.
The paper writes all three are almost same rather than almost the same. That is its own wording and it changes nothing about what the blank needs.
Key facts
- Deep is the adjective and depth the noun formed from it, so only deep can fill an adjective slot before transcendental knowledge.
- English collocates knowledge with deep, wide and vast rather than with large.
- The clause contrasts those who have such knowledge with ordinary humans, so the missing adjective has to be positive.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing depth because it looks more formal than deep
- Missing that superficial reverses the contrast the sentence is drawing
- Treating large as a general intensifier that will fit any noun
When a cloze option set holds two forms of one word, the blank is usually testing word class rather than vocabulary.
The same test runs at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.22, where the set pairs the adjective forest-living against the noun life and the adjective is keyed.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.