In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Augmented reality and virtual reality are two types of reality technologies that either augment or replace a real-world environment with a (1)________ one. In augmented reality, a virtual environment coexists (2)________ the actual world, to be instructive and offer more data about the real world that a user can access without having to search. When a handset is pointed at a piece of malfunctioning (3)________, for example, industrial AR apps might provide rapid troubleshooting information. Virtual reality is a (4)________ environmental simulation that completely replaces the user's surroundings with a totally virtual world. For example, VR may provide a user with a box containing a cartoon (5)________ of Mike Tyson in a virtual boxing ring.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)revealed
- (b)simulated
- (c)catered
- (d)suffocated
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The blank is an adjective sitting in front of one, and that 'one' stands for environment, the noun three words earlier: the technologies 'replace a real-world environment with a ___ one'.
So the missing word has to be the opposite of real-world - something made rather than found. Simulated is precisely that.
The passage confirms it further down, where it calls virtual reality an 'environmental simulation'. That is option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)revealed — Revealed means brought into view or made known. A revealed environment is one that was hidden, which says nothing about whether it is artificial.
- (c)catered — To cater is to supply food or to provide for a need, and it is used with for or to. A catered event is one with food laid on, not a computer-generated place.
- (d)suffocated — Suffocated means deprived of air. It is said of a person or a flame, never of a substitute environment.
Concept
In a cloze the best clue is usually a word already in the same sentence. Here it is real-world.
The clause describes a swap - the real environment out, something else in - so the blank must name the something else, and it can only be the not-real one.
The word one is a pro-form: it repeats the noun it replaces. So whatever fills the blank must be able to modify environment, which rules out words that describe only people or events.
Read the passage to the end before answering blank 1. It defines its own vocabulary further down - simulation, virtual world - which settles the blank with no outside knowledge.
Simulated and virtual are near-neighbours in this subject area, and the passage uses both. That echo is the confirmation worth looking for: a cloze answer the text restates in another form is the one to trust.
Key facts
- Simulated means made to imitate something real, which is the sense both AR and VR depend on.
- The pro-form 'one' repeats the noun it stands for, here environment, so the blank must be an adjective.
- Cater is followed by for or to, as in cater for a crowd.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing revealed because it sounds technological alongside AR and VR.
- Filling blanks in order without reading to the end, where simulation appears in plain sight.
In this paper the cloze passage carries five blanks, asked as English Q.21 to Q.25.
Comparable passages are set at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.21 to Q.25, on the rush to digital training after Covid-19, and at 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.21 to Q.25, on eighteenth-century face paint and smallpox.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.