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 5.
- (a)gained
- (b)is gained
- (c)was gained
- (d)gains
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The subject of the blank is the real happiness — the thing obtained, not the one doing the obtaining — so the verb has to be passive.
The clauses around it all run in the present: the mind is absent, so is the physical world, happiness is missing. The passive must match that frame.
The present passive of gain is is gained, which is option (b). Read the clause whole — during sleep as the mind is absent and so is the physical world, the real happiness is gained.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)gained — Gained alone is a bare past participle needing an auxiliary, or else a past active verb — and an active verb would make happiness the one doing the gaining.
- (c)was gained — Was gained has the right passive shape but the wrong tense. The clause it sits in is built on present verbs, so a past form breaks the sequence.
- (d)gains — Gains is active present, so it casts the real happiness as the gainer rather than as what is gained, reversing the roles the sentence sets up.
Concept
Two decisions sit inside this one blank, and taking them in order makes it quick.
First voice. Ask who performs the action: happiness does not gain anything, it is what is gained, so the verb must be a form of be plus the past participle.
Then tense. A cloze sentence rarely switches tense midway, and this one is built on present verbs, so the present passive is the form that fits.
The paper joins the two halves of the sentence with a colon after happiness is missing. Both halves describe how things generally are, which is a second reason the present tense holds across the blank.
Key facts
- The present passive is formed with is or are plus the past participle, as in is gained.
- A past participle standing alone, gained, is not a finite verb and cannot be a clause's only verb.
- Choosing between gains and is gained is a question of who performs the action, not of meaning.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking gains because the subject sits right before the blank and looks like an agent
- Switching to was gained because the subject matter feels ancient
- Reading gained as a complete verb and stopping there
When all four options are forms of one verb, the blank is a grammar blank, settled by voice and tense rather than by meaning. The same shape appears at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.24, where the options are transmit, transmitted, transmits and transmitting and transmit is keyed.
Passive voice is also tested head-on at English Q.8 and Q.16 of the 13 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper, keyed The winner will be announced by the team tomorrow and Do not be fooled by Dylan.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.