In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. This Diwali is more significant because we are going to celebrate it after three years, without the evil shadow of Covid-19 that (1)________ looming over all festivities. The lockdowns and endless bad news of death and (2)________ had turned our country into a zone of gloom. But, this season of Diwali (3)________ all the sorrows of people by lighting the candle of hope in their lives. We can see the lights, the candles, the lanterns, and the busy people coming out of their houses and purchasing toys for their children. Let’s (4)________ those people who have made such a huge contribution to (5)________ good thoughts and saving people's lives.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)were
- (b)are
- (c)is
- (d)was
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The clause is that (1) ___ looming over all festivities, and its subject that points back to the evil shadow — one shadow, so the verb has to be singular.
That removes both plural forms before tense is even considered.
Between the singular forms, the passage puts the shadow in the past: we are celebrating without it, and the next sentence uses had turned. The past progressive was looming is the fit — option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)were — were is plural, and the subject of the clause is the singular shadow that that refers back to. Number rules this out before tense matters.
- (b)are — are is plural as well, and present. It fails twice over — the subject is singular and the shadow is described as gone.
- (c)is — is is singular but present, so it would say the shadow is looming now. The sentence celebrates Diwali without that shadow.
Concept
A verb inside a relative clause agrees with the noun the relative pronoun points back to, not with the noun standing nearest to it.
Here the head noun is shadow and the nearest noun before the blank is Covid-19. Both are singular, so agreement only clears away the plurals, and tense has to finish the job.
Cloze tense is read from the sentences around the blank, never from the blank alone. we are going to celebrate it after three years and had turned both place the shadow in a finished past.
The blank is an auxiliary slot, not a verb slot. looming is already printed in the sentence, which is why all four options are forms of be and none is a full verb.
So the question is only which form of be the subject and the time frame allow.
Key facts
- In a relative clause, the verb agrees with the antecedent of who, which or that, not with the closest noun.
- The past progressive is was or were plus an -ing form, so a sentence that already shows the -ing form needs only the auxiliary.
- Tense in a cloze is fixed by neighbouring sentences — here by had turned in the sentence that follows.
Study next
Common traps
- Agreeing the verb with Covid-19 or with festivities instead of with shadow.
- Choosing is because the passage opens in the present, without noticing that this clause describes a state the writer says is over.
Verb-form blanks of this kind are also asked 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.21 (the rise in global temperature ___ already occurred, keyed that has) and 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.22 (the number of heart-attacks in young Indians ___ increased, keyed has).
All 35 CGL 2024 Tier-I shift papers on file run their cloze passage at English Q.21 to Q.25, so budget for the five blanks as one block of reading.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.