In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary (1) _________ of average accomplishment in important areas of human development, (2) _________ living a long and healthy life, being informed and having a good quality of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of the normalised (3) _________ for each dimension. The health component is (4) _________ by life expectancy at birth, while the education dimension is measured by the average number of years of schooling for individuals aged 25 and above, as well as the (5) _________ number of years of schooling for school-age children.
Select the most appropriate answer for blank number 1.
- (a)collect
- (b)involvement
- (c)assessment
- (d)regiment
Answer
Why
Correct — C. Read the frame the passage gives: a summary ______ of average accomplishment. The article a and the adjective summary demand a singular noun, and the of-phrase demands a noun that can take something as its object of appraisal.
Assessment means an appraisal or measurement of something, which is what an index reports. A summary assessment of average accomplishment states what the HDI does.
Collect is a verb and cannot follow an adjective in that slot at all. Option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)collect — Collect is a verb. The slot sits after the article a and the adjective summary, so only a noun can fill it — collection would be grammatical, collect is not.
- (b)involvement — Involvement is a noun, but it means taking part in something. The HDI does not take part in accomplishment, it rates it, so the of-phrase will not read.
- (d)regiment — A regiment is a unit of an army. It has the right grammatical shape and nothing else — no sense of measuring, rating or summarising.
Concept
Cloze blanks are solved from the frame, not from the topic. Read the two or three words on each side of the gap and ask what form can legally stand there.
Here the frame is a + summary + ______ + of. That fixes a singular countable noun, and the of-phrase narrows it further to a noun that takes an object of appraisal.
Once form has cut the list, meaning finishes the job. The sentence is defining an index, and an index is a measure or an assessment, never a participation or a military unit.
UNDP defines the HDI as a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development. The paper has swapped measure for a blank and achievement for accomplishment, so the option nearest in sense to measure is the one that fits.
Key facts
- An article plus an adjective in front of a blank fixes the slot as a noun, which removes any verb from the option list.
- Assessment means an appraisal or measurement of something, which is what an index reports.
- The passage paraphrases UNDP's definition of the HDI as a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing Collect because the idea of gathering data feels right for an index.
- Filling the blank from the subject matter instead of from the grammar of the slot.
- Taking Involvement as a general-purpose noun without testing it against the of-phrase.
The English block of this paper closes with a five-blank cloze running from Q.21 to Q.25, and the blanks mix grammar with vocabulary. This one is settled by word class before meaning is needed.
The passage subject changes freely: 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.21 runs its cloze on culture and 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.21 runs one on music. HDI itself returns as a General Awareness fact at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, General Awareness Q.25.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.