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 4.
- (a)levitated
- (b)measured
- (c)escaped
- (d)triggered
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The sentence answers itself. The clause after the comma reads the education dimension is measured by the average number of years of schooling, so the clause before it must say the same thing about health.
The frame reads is ______ by life expectancy at birth. A passive verb with by after it wants an instrument or a yardstick, and life expectancy at birth is a yardstick.
Only measured takes one. The health component is measured by life expectancy at birth — option (b).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)levitated — Levitated means raised into the air without visible support. Nothing in a definition of an index is lifted, and life expectancy cannot be the means of lifting it.
- (c)escaped — Escaped means got away from. The by-phrase would then name what the health component escaped by, which is not a sense the sentence can carry.
- (d)triggered — Triggered means set off. Life expectancy does not start the health component; it is the figure the component is read from, which calls for a verb of measurement.
Concept
A cloze blank inside a passive frame is settled by the preposition that follows it.
Here the frame reads is ______ by life expectancy at birth. A by-phrase after a passive verb names the agent, the instrument or the yardstick, so the blank needs a verb that can take one of those.
Measure, assess and gauge all can. Levitate, escape and trigger cannot take a yardstick after by, which decides the item before any knowledge of the HDI is needed.
The passage prints a parallel in the same sentence, right after the comma: the education dimension is measured by the average number of years of schooling.
The by-phrase test settles the blank on its own, and the parallel confirms it.
Key facts
- A by-phrase after a passive verb names the agent, instrument or yardstick, which is what fixes measured in this slot.
- The passage's own second clause reads the education dimension is measured by, so the blank has a printed parallel.
- In the HDI the health dimension is represented by life expectancy at birth.
Study next
Common traps
- Filling the blank from the subject matter when the by-phrase already decides it.
- Skipping the clause after the comma, which prints the answer's own parallel.
- Taking levitated as a formal-sounding word for raised and letting it stand in a definition.
This passage is a five-blank cloze running from English Q.21 to Q.25 of this paper.
Blank 4 is decided by the parallel clause the sentence prints after the comma. Blank 3 at English Q.23 is decided by the words on either side of its gap, normalised and geometric mean.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.