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 3.
- (a)conflictingly
- (b)unpredictability
- (c)consistently
- (d)clumsily
Answer
Why
Correct — C.
The slot sits between so and the verb dissatisfy, so it has to hold an adverb. unpredictability is a noun and fails on that test alone, before meaning is considered.
Of the three adverbs left, the paragraph has already said what to look for. It opens I have a recurring dream, and the writer keeps returning to the same college nightmare. That is repetition, not contradiction and not awkwardness.
consistently names repetition of exactly that kind, which is option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)conflictingly — conflictingly would mean in a way that clashes or contradicts. The complaint in the sentence is that the same dissatisfaction keeps coming back, not that two things pull against each other.
- (b)unpredictability — unpredictability is a noun, and a noun cannot stand between so and a verb. Even its adjective would fight the passage, which insists the dream recurs.
- (d)clumsily — clumsily describes an awkward manner of doing something. It says nothing about how often the dissatisfaction returns, which is what so and recurring together set up.
Concept
Two filters settle an adverb blank, and they run in order.
The first is word class. When the blank sits between a degree word such as so or very and a verb, an adverb is the one form that fits — a noun there is unreadable however apt its meaning.
The second is the discourse link. A cloze paragraph plants its own evidence: recurring dream, a class I forgot to attend, ever, and a stress dream the writer calls common all point the same way, at repetition.
Clear the first filter, then read backwards for the second.
unpredictability ends in -ity, a noun ending. It is placed here to catch a reader skimming for something long and abstract rather than for the adverb the slot actually needs.
Key facts
- A slot between so and a verb needs an adverb.
- unpredictability is a noun, and its adverb form is unpredictably.
- consistently means regularly and without variation, matching the recurring dream the passage opens with.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing unpredictability because a dream feels unpredictable, without checking what the slot allows
- Choosing clumsily because the sentence sounds self-critical
A cloze option in the wrong word class is worth looking for first, because it costs nothing to eliminate. The next blank in this passage, English Q.24, does the same thing with the verb instigate among three adjectives, and 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.22 keys gradually in an adverb slot.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.