In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. We naturally seek the company of those whose (1) _________ are the same as our own. Fools do not like the (2) _________ of wise men, and wise men avoid fools. Serious-minded people do not find much in common with (3) _________ folk, and vice versa. Sinners feel uncomfortable with (4) _________ and do not seek their company. We can, therefore, as a rule, judge a man’s (5) _________ by the company he keeps.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 2.
- (a)serious
- (b)antagonist
- (c)culture
- (d)company
Answer
Why
Correct — D. Read the sentence whole: 'Fools do not like the (2) _________ of wise men, and wise men avoid fools.' The second half turns on avoid, which means keeping away from a person.
So the first half is the same fact from the other side: what fools dislike is being with wise men. Company, in the sense of being in someone's presence, is that word → option (d).
It also echoes the opening 'seek the company of those' and the closing 'by the company he keeps'.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)serious — Serious is an adjective. The slot sits between 'the' and 'of wise men', where a noun is required, so this fails on form before meaning is considered.
- (b)antagonist — Antagonist means an opponent, and it is singular where the sentence generalises about fools and wise men. Disliking one opponent is not what 'avoid' is set against.
- (c)culture — Culture makes a grammatical phrase but the wrong claim. The sentence is about keeping away from people, and culture names what a group produces, not the fact of being with them.
Concept
This blank is settled by cohesion — the way a passage says one thing over and over in different places.
'Company' appears in the first sentence, in 'seek the company of those', and again in the last, in 'by the company he keeps'. The middle sentences restate the same idea about different people.
When one word carries the argument, look for it in the untouched sentences before you weigh the options.
The two halves are joined by 'and', so they run parallel rather than contrast. Fools disliking the company of wise men and wise men avoiding fools are one fact told from both ends.
Key facts
- Company here means the state of being with another person, not a business.
- The is a determiner, so what follows it must be a noun or a noun phrase.
- The passage uses company in both its first and its last sentence, which is what makes it the filler here.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing culture because the phrase reads smoothly on its own.
- Stopping at the blank instead of reading on to 'avoid', which fixes the meaning.
- Putting an adjective in a slot that follows 'the'.
Cloze items in this format reward one habit: read the whole paragraph once, then fill the blanks in the order they become obvious rather than in numerical order.
The same five-blank cloze runs at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.21 to Q.25 and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.21 to Q.25.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.