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 4.
- (a)reality
- (b)unreal
- (c)confused
- (d)unimaginary
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The frame is from one unreal world to another ____ world, and the slot stands before the noun world, so it needs an adjective.
The sentence's whole point is that the move is between two worlds of the same kind — Ramana Maharshi observed no difference between dreaming and waking states.
Repeating unreal is what makes that point: one unreal world to another unreal world. Option (b) is both the right word class and the reading the passage argues for.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)reality — Reality is a noun, and another reality world is not English. It would also make the second world real, contradicting the no difference the passage insists on.
- (c)confused — Confused describes a person's state of mind rather than a world, and it introduces an idea the passage never raises.
- (d)unimaginary — Unimaginary is not a word English uses — the ordinary opposite of imaginary is real. It would also turn the second world real, reversing the sentence's claim.
Concept
In the frame from one X to another ____ X, the second slot normally repeats the first modifier. The construction exists to say that nothing changed in the move.
Word class narrows the field first: the slot premodifies world, so the noun reality drops out before meaning is weighed at all.
Then read the neighbouring lines. The passage says there is no difference between the images one sees when waking up and the images seen during dreams, calling the first a daydream and the second a night dream.
The passage never argues that the waking world is real. It puts waking images and dream images on the same footing, so the blank cannot take a word meaning real.
Key facts
- The passage states that Ramana Maharshi observed no difference between dreaming and waking states.
- It calls the waking images a daydream and the dream images a night dream.
- In the frame from one X to another ____ X, repeating the modifier is what carries the sense of no change.
Study next
Common traps
- Assuming the second word must contrast with the first because another hints at something new
- Picking reality because it is the familiar word, without testing it in the slot
- Accepting unimaginary as a plausible coinage
Vocabulary blanks in a cloze passage are often decided by a word the passage has already used, so scan the neighbouring lines for a repeat before weighing synonyms.
Another vocabulary blank with four plausible nouns is set at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.23, where the options are contents, indices, glimpses and features and indices is keyed.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.