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 3.
- (a)brings up
- (b)takes for
- (c)calls for
- (d)disposes of
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The sentence is Listening is a process that (3)___________ concentration.
The blank needs a verb that takes "concentration" as a direct object and says what the process does to it. Call for means to require or demand, so the clause reads as "a process that requires concentration".
The paragraph backs that reading. Its next sentence adds While listening, one should also be observant - another demand made on the listener, not something taken away from them.
Requirement, not removal and not introduction, is the idea, and that is option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)brings up — Bring up means to raise a subject, to rear a child or to vomit. A process does not raise concentration as a topic, and none of those senses fits an abstract object here.
- (b)takes for — Take for needs two objects - you take one thing for another, as in I took him for a doctor. With only concentration after it the phrase is left incomplete.
- (d)disposes of — Dispose of means to get rid of, which reverses the passage's argument. The paragraph goes on to ask for attention and observation from the listener.
Concept
Phrasal verbs are the hardest cloze blanks, because the particle carries the meaning and the base verb tells you little.
Call for is the requirement sense: a situation calls for patience, a recipe calls for two eggs. It takes a direct object and needs nothing after it.
Compare the neighbours set against it here. Bring up raises or rears, take for mistakes one thing for another, dispose of discards.
The quickest test is substitution: put the plain verb requires in the blank, and the sentence still says what the paragraph means.
All four options are verb-plus-particle, so the particle is the whole test. Reading only the verbs - call, bring, take, dispose - will not separate them.
Key facts
- Call for means to require or demand, and takes a direct object.
- Bring up means to raise a topic or to rear a child.
- Take for means to mistake one person or thing for another, and needs two objects.
- Dispose of means to get rid of something.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing brings up because it sounds like increasing concentration, which the phrasal verb does not mean.
- Reading takes for as a longer takes and ignoring that the particle for demands a second element.
A phrasal-verb blank sits in the cloze at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.24, keyed folded up against tucked away, cleared up and hid away.
The test is the same there: the four options share a shape, and only the particle and its sense decide.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.