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 4.
- (a)viability
- (b)survival
- (c)fatalities
- (d)durability
Answer
Why
Correct — C. Two things fix this gap.
It is joined to injuries by "and", so it must be a noun of the same class — a harm suffered by people, not a quality.
And the sentence before it says earthquakes rarely directly kill anyone, which sets up the contrast: the killing is indirect, done by debris and collapsing structures.
Fatalities means deaths. Deaths and injuries, caused by falling debris — option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)viability — Viability means the ability to survive or to work in practice. Falling debris does not cause a viability, and the word will not pair with injuries.
- (b)survival — Survival is the reverse of what the sentence reports. Debris does not cause survival, and English does not count people who live as "many survivals".
- (d)durability — Durability means the ability to last without wearing out. It describes materials and structures, not the people the structures fall on.
Concept
When two nouns are joined by and, they belong to the same class. Whatever fills this gap has to be a harm, because injuries is a harm.
That test alone removes viability, survival and durability. All three name a capacity, and a capacity is not something falling debris produces.
Fatality in this register means a death caused by an accident or a disaster. It is the word disaster reporting uses, which is why it turns up in passages on earthquakes, floods and road crashes.
The sentence before the gap is doing real work — earthquakes rarely directly kill anyone.
It tells you the paragraph has turned to deaths, and that they come from debris and collapse rather than from the shaking itself.
Key facts
- A fatality is a death resulting from an accident, a disaster or a violent event.
- Viability is the capacity to survive or succeed, not an instance of surviving.
- Nouns joined by and in a list share a class, so a gap can be filled by matching the noun beside it.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing survival because the passage is about people living through an earthquake.
- Skipping the sentence before the gap, which is where the contrast is set up.
- Matching the gap to the topic instead of to the noun it is joined to by and.
This blank is decided by the noun beside it rather than by the subject matter, which is how SSC keeps a vocabulary gap from being answered on topic alone.
The same passage runs at English Q.21, Q.22, Q.23 and Q.25 of the 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper, and 13 Sep 2024, 09:00 sets its own five-gap passage at English Q.21-Q.25.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.