In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Earthquake is the (1)_________ breaking and displacement of substantial portions of the earth's outer rocky crust. During an earthquake, rock disturbances can cause rivers to change their flow. Landslides (2)__________ by earthquakes can cause significant destruction and loss of life. Tsunamis are a (3)_________ of damaging waves caused by large earthquakes that occur under the ocean. Earthquakes rarely directly kill anyone. Many (4)__________ and injuries are caused by falling debris and the fall of structures. The (5)_________ of an earthquake relies on how much and how far rock cracks and shifts.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 3.
- (a)arrest
- (b)interruption
- (c)succession
- (d)disorder
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The frame is a ___ of damaging waves — a singular countable noun taking "of" plus a plural. English fills that frame with a collective or sequence word.
Succession means a number of things following one after another, which is what a tsunami is: not one wall of water but a train of waves arriving in turn.
Of the four, only succession can head a phrase of that shape and mean a series. Option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)arrest — Arrest means a stopping or a seizure. A stopping of waves cannot then be described as damaging, and the sentence needs a word for the waves themselves.
- (b)interruption — Interruption names a break in something that was continuous. The gap needs a word for the waves as a group, and an interruption is precisely their absence.
- (d)disorder — Disorder means confusion or a lack of arrangement, and in another sense an illness. Tsunami waves are the opposite of disordered — they arrive in sequence, one behind another.
Concept
The gap sits inside a ___ of plus a plural noun, the frame English keeps for collective and sequence nouns: a series of, a string of, a succession of, a flurry of.
Succession is the sequence word — things following one another in order, with no break in the line.
The science agrees with the grammar here. A tsunami is not a single wave but a set of waves arriving one after another, which is why coastal warnings stay in force after the first one has passed.
You do not need the geology to answer this.
The frame "a ___ of damaging waves" already asks for a collective noun, and succession is the option that supplies one.
Key facts
- Succession means a number of things or people following one after another.
- In succession is the adverbial form, as in three wickets in succession.
- A tsunami arrives as a series of waves, and the first is not necessarily the largest.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking disorder because the passage is about destruction.
- Choosing arrest because it sounds forceful, when it actually names a stopping.
- Treating "a ___ of" as a free slot rather than a frame demanding a collective noun.
One paragraph carries every blank in this set, so the topic vocabulary repays a first read before any gap is attempted.
The same passage runs at English Q.21, Q.22, Q.24 and Q.25 of the 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.