In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. I have a recurring dream. Actually, I have a few: one is about dismembering a body , I’d rather not get into it, but the (1) ________ pertinent one is about college. It’s the end of the semester, and I suddenly (2) ________ that there is a class I forgot to attend, ever, and now I have to sit for the final exam. I wake up panicked, my GPA in peril. How could I have done this? Why do I so (3) ________ dissatisfy myself? Then I remember I haven’t been in college in more than a decade. Someone with (4) ________ knowledge of my academic career might point out that this nightmare scenario is not that far removed from my actual collegiate experience, and that at certain times in my life, it did not take the magic of slumber to find me completely unprepared for a final. And, well, (5) ________ of what may or may not be true of my personal scholastic rigour, I suspect the school-stress dream is quite a common one.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)more
- (b)better
- (c)best
- (d)strong
Answer
Why
Correct — A.
pertinent is a three-syllable adjective, so English grades it with a separate word — more pertinent, most pertinent — and never by adding -er.
That settles the slot before meaning comes into it. better and best are already the comparative and superlative of good, and a graded form cannot itself grade a second adjective. strong is another plain adjective, which cannot modify pertinent either.
Option (a) is the one that leaves a grammatical phrase: the more pertinent one is about college.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)better — better is already the comparative of good. Two graded forms cannot stack, so better pertinent is not a possible English phrase.
- (c)best — best is the superlative of good and fails the same way. It would also claim a ranking the writer never sets up, since he is picking one dream out of a few, not out of all dreams.
- (d)strong — strong is an ordinary adjective, and an adjective cannot modify another adjective. The slot needs a grading word, not a second description.
Concept
English grades adjectives in two ways.
Short ones inflect: hard, harder, hardest. Longer ones — three syllables, and most two-syllable ones that do not end in -y — take more and most: more pertinent, most pertinent.
The difficulty in this blank is that three options are real words that sound as though they grade something. better and best already are graded forms, of good. strong is not graded at all.
Ask what part of speech the slot needs — a grading word in front of an adjective — and the choice is made without a second reading of the paragraph.
the more pertinent one is a comparison inside a set the writer has already named: he says he has a few recurring dreams, then singles this one out. That is what licenses a comparative rather than a plain adjective.
Key facts
- Adjectives of three or more syllables form the comparative with more rather than -er.
- better and best are the comparative and superlative of good and cannot grade another adjective.
- pertinent means relevant to the matter in hand.
Study next
Common traps
- Reading better as a general intensifier rather than as the comparative of good
- Choosing a superlative because the definite article the stands in front of the blank
A cloze passage deletes both grammar words and content words, and a grammar blank like this one is settled by word class alone.
The same passage continues at English Q.22 to Q.25 in this shift. 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.21 to Q.25 runs the same five-blank format, with four of its five blanks taken by connectives.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.