In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option, in the questions that follow, to fill in each blank. A dance which is created or choreographed and performed according (1)___________ the tenets of the Natya Shastra is called a classical dance. The two broad (2)____________ of classical dancing are the tandava and the lasya. Power and force are typical of the tandava; grace and delicacy of the lasya. Tandava is (3)_______________ with Shiva, and lasya with Parvati. Dance which is pure movement is called nritta, and dance which is (4)_______________ in nature is called nritya. A dancer, in the classical tradition, has to have years of training before he or she can begin to perform on the stage. The four main (5)_____________ of classical dancing in India are : Bharat Natyam, Kathakali, Manipuri, Kathak .Bharat Natyam is the oldest and most popular dance-form of India.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 3.
- (a)renovate
- (b)associated
- (c)flourished
- (d)informed
Answer
Why
Correct — B. Two things fix this blank. The frame is is ____ with, so the word has to be a past participle sitting in a passive, and it has to be a word that takes with.
Associated satisfies both. You associate one thing with another, so the passive reads 'Tandava is associated with Shiva'.
The second clause drops the verb altogether — 'and lasya with Parvati' — which only works if the missing word governs with. Option (b) is that word.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)renovate — renovate is a bare infinitive, not a participle, so 'is renovate with' is ungrammatical. It also means to restore a building, which has no bearing on linking a dance to a deity.
- (c)flourished — flourished never links two things with with. A thing flourishes in a place or under conditions, and in its other sense you flourish a sword — you brandish it. Neither sense ties a dance to a deity.
- (d)informed — informed pairs with about or of when it means told, and with by when it means shaped by. None of those is with, and this sentence links rather than tells.
Concept
Two questions settle a blank inside a passive frame: does the option have a participle form, and does it take the preposition that follows the gap?
Here the frame is is ____ with. Run each option through it and three collapse on form or on preposition before meaning is weighed at all.
Associate with is a fixed transitive pairing, so its passive is 'X is associated with Y'. That is exactly the tie the passage draws between tandava and Shiva.
The clipped second clause is a gift rather than a complication. Because 'and lasya with Parvati' repeats only the preposition, the missing verb must be one that governs with.
Key facts
- Associate takes with: you associate a symbol with an idea.
- A passive built on is needs a past participle, which rules out a bare infinitive such as renovate.
- Flourish means either to thrive or to brandish something, and neither sense takes with as its linking preposition.
- Inform pairs with about or of when it means to tell someone something.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing informed because it is a real participle, without testing it against the with that follows.
- Letting flourished through because the passage is about a living tradition, when the sentence links tandava to a deity rather than saying it thrives.
Cloze blanks that hinge on the preposition after the gap turn up across shifts — also asked 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.23, where with is keyed after acquaintance, and 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.22, where with is keyed after coexists.
The verb-form version of the same test sits at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.21 and Q.24, where the blank chooses among forms of one verb.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.