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. Listening starts with hearing but goes (1)___________. Hearing, in other words, is necessary, but is not a sufficient (2)___________ for listening. Listening involves hearing with attention. Listening is a process that (3)___________ concentration. While listening, one should also be observant. In other words, listening has to do with the ears, (4)____________ with the eyes and the mind. Listening is to be understood as the total process that involves hearing with attention, being observant and making interpretations. Good communication is essentially a/an (5)___________ process.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 2.
- (a)condition
- (b)place
- (c)decorum
- (d)scenario
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The sentence is Hearing, in other words, is necessary, but is not a sufficient (2)___________ for listening.
Necessary and sufficient are the pair English uses for requirements, and the noun they both modify is condition - a necessary condition, a sufficient condition.
The preposition seals it. A condition is stated for something, and the sentence already prints "for listening".
The claim being made is that hearing is required but not enough on its own. That is a statement about requirements, not about places, manners or situations, so the blank takes option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)place — Place is spatial. A sufficient place for listening would be about room or location, while the sentence is about what hearing does and does not guarantee.
- (c)decorum — Decorum means proper, dignified behaviour. It is a standard of conduct, not a requirement that can be called necessary or sufficient, and the passage raises no question of manners.
- (d)scenario — Scenario means an imagined situation or sequence of events. A scenario is not something one thing supplies for another, so the phrase would say nothing.
Concept
Necessary and sufficient are technical partners, and the noun that completes them both is condition.
A necessary condition must be present for the result. A sufficient condition, on its own, guarantees it. Hearing is the first without being the second: you cannot listen without hearing, but hearing alone is not listening.
Blanks like this are collocation tests. The adjective in front and the preposition behind fence the blank in from both sides, and only one of the four nouns fits both fences.
The three wrong nouns are all ordinary English words in other frames, so the item is less about vocabulary than about which noun the words around the blank demand.
Key facts
- Necessary condition and sufficient condition are fixed collocations, borrowed into ordinary prose from logic.
- A necessary condition must hold for an outcome, while a sufficient condition by itself guarantees that outcome.
- Decorum means propriety of behaviour, not a requirement.
- The passage argues that hearing is necessary for listening but not sufficient by itself.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking scenario because it is the most modern-sounding word on the list.
- Ignoring the preposition for, which already sits after the blank and rules out nouns that do not take it.
Cloze blanks of this kind are settled by the words fencing the blank rather than by a dictionary.
A phrasal-verb blank in the same paragraph is keyed at 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.23 (calls for), and a preposition-phrase blank at 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.23 (compared to, against according to, similar to and combine to).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.