In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. (1) _________ a letter came to inform them that Raka’s mother Tara had another breakdown and was in a nursing home in Geneva and that Raka’s grandmother Asha, (2) _________ seen another grandchild safely into the world, was flying to Switzerland to be with her, Nanda Kaul (3) _________ her lips, (4) _________ the blue sheets of paper with that distasteful sprawl (5) _________ them, and hid them in her desk.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)Sooner
- (b)When
- (c)For
- (d)Unless
Answer
Why
Correct — B. Read past the blank to the main clause: Nanda Kaul pursed her lips, folded up the blue sheets of paper ... and hid them in her desk.
Everything before that comma is one long subordinate clause about a letter arriving. What the blank needs is a subordinating conjunction of time that can stand at the head of the sentence and fix the moment the main action happened.
When does exactly that: when the letter came, she pursed her lips.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Sooner — Sooner is a comparative adverb, not a conjunction. It works only in the pair "no sooner ... than", which would also force inversion: "No sooner had a letter come than ...".
- (c)For — As a conjunction for means "because", and it joins a reason to a statement already made. It cannot open the sentence ahead of the clause it explains.
- (d)Unless — Unless means "if not" and sets a condition. The letter did arrive, and the passage narrates what followed, so a conditional cannot head it.
Concept
A cloze blank at the very start of a sentence is almost always a connector, and the way to test it is to find the main clause first.
Here the main clause is "Nanda Kaul pursed her lips". A time conjunction such as when, while, as, after or before can precede it; a coordinator such as for cannot, and a conditional such as unless changes what the sentence claims.
The comma before "Nanda Kaul" is the visible sign that a subordinate clause has just ended.
The blank sits a long way from the main verb, because two "that" clauses are stacked inside the subordinate clause before "Nanda Kaul" arrives.
That distance is the whole difficulty; the grammar is ordinary once you have found pursed.
Key facts
- "When" introduces an adverbial clause of time and can stand first, with a comma before the main clause.
- "No sooner" needs its correlative "than" and inverts the auxiliary that follows it.
- As a conjunction, "for" means "because" and follows the statement it explains.
- "Unless" means "if not" and introduces a condition, not a completed past event.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking Sooner on a half-remembered "no sooner ... than" without checking that the pair is complete.
- Filling blank 1 from the words nearest it instead of locating the main clause "Nanda Kaul pursed her lips".
The same passage supplies blanks 2 to 5, tested at English Q.22 to Q.25 of this shift, so read all five before answering any one.
A cloze blank filled by a sentence-opening connector is also set on 19 Sep 2024, 12:30 at English Q.23 (Although, heading a concessive clause before the main clause) and on 9 Sep 2024, 09:00 at English Q.21 (However, turning against the saying just quoted).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.