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 5.
- (a)regardless
- (b)notwithstanding
- (c)nevertheless
- (d)inasmuch
Answer
Why
Correct — A.
The deciding word is the one printed after the blank: of. Whatever fills the slot has to be a word English completes with of.
regardless is that word — regardless of the cost, regardless of what he says. It is fixed with of, and it means without taking that into account, which is the concession the sentence is making about the writer's own scholastic rigour.
Read whole: regardless of what may or may not be true of my personal scholastic rigour — option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)notwithstanding — notwithstanding is itself a preposition and takes its object bare, as in notwithstanding the cost. Adding of after it doubles the preposition, and notwithstanding of is not English.
- (c)nevertheless — nevertheless is a conjunctive adverb standing for all the same. It joins two statements and takes no complement, so it cannot govern the of-phrase that follows the blank.
- (d)inasmuch — inasmuch never stands alone. It occurs only in inasmuch as, which introduces a reason, and a reason is not what the clause after the blank supplies.
Concept
Concession words differ in what they attach to, and a blank like this tests exactly that.
regardless of and irrespective of take a noun phrase or a clause, and they need the of.
despite, in spite of and notwithstanding take a noun phrase, as in despite the rain or notwithstanding the rain, with no of after notwithstanding.
however, nevertheless and nonetheless join sentences and take no complement at all. Match the option to the shape of what follows the blank and the meaning looks after itself.
What follows the blank is a full clause — what may or may not be true — and regardless of takes a clause happily. Read the blank in isolation and the options look interchangeable, since notwithstanding and nevertheless both concede something. The test is the of.
Key facts
- regardless is fixed with of, as in regardless of the weather.
- notwithstanding is a preposition on its own and takes no of after it.
- nevertheless is a conjunctive adverb and takes no complement.
- inasmuch occurs only in the pair inasmuch as.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing notwithstanding because it means much the same thing and sounds more literary
- Treating regardless and irregardless as interchangeable, when only regardless is standard
This closing blank turns on the word printed after it rather than on the sense before it. 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.25 also lands its final blank on a connective, keying Therefore against However, Nevertheless and Moreover.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.