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 rise in global temperature (1)__________ already occurred is leading to extreme weather events that bring (2)__________ heat waves and droughts, devastating floods and increasingly powerful hurricanes and tropical storms. The combination of these factors means the impact on human health is increasing and is (3)__________ accelerate. But there is room for hope, particularly if governments take action now to (4)__________ the pledges made at Glasgow in November 2021 and to go further in resolving the climate crisis. WHO is (5)__________ governments to lead a just, equitable, and fast phase out of fossil fuels and transition to a clean energy future.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 1.
- (a)that has
- (b)that is
- (c)which had
- (d)which have
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The relative clause modifies the rise, not 'temperature': 'The rise ... has already occurred'. A singular head noun takes a singular verb, which removes both plural readings at once.
Then the tense. Already, with a result still running in the main clause ('is leading to extreme weather events'), calls for the present perfect has occurred rather than the past perfect.
'That has' meets both conditions, and the clause is defining and comma-less, where 'that' is the ordinary choice: option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)that is — 'That is already occurred' is not English. Occur is intransitive, so it has no passive, and 'is occurred' is not a perfect either — the perfect of occur is 'has occurred'.
- (c)which had — Had occurred is past perfect and needs an earlier past event to sit before. The main clause here is present, 'is leading', so there is no past anchor for it.
- (d)which have — Have is plural. It is pulled in by 'temperature' sitting right beside the blank, but the head of the noun phrase is 'the rise', and a rise is singular.
Concept
Two rules decide most relative-clause blanks in a cloze.
Agreement runs to the head noun, not to the nearest one. In 'the rise in global temperature' the head is 'rise' and 'in global temperature' only modifies it, so the verb is singular.
Tense runs to the main clause. A present main verb supports a present perfect in the relative clause, but not a past perfect, which needs a past anchor to precede.
'That' and 'which' both introduce defining clauses in general use, so the pronoun rarely decides the answer on its own.
The four options vary on two axes at once, pronoun and verb, but the verb axis is the decisive one here because either pronoun can open a defining clause. A candidate who tries to settle it on 'that against which' alone will be left with two live options.
Key facts
- In 'the rise in global temperature' the head noun is 'rise', so the verb agrees with 'rise' and is singular.
- The present perfect pairs with 'already', 'just' and 'yet' when a past event still bears on the present.
- The past perfect needs a later past reference point, so it does not fit a clause whose main verb is present.
Study next
Common traps
- Agreeing the verb with 'temperature' because it is the noun nearest the blank.
- Reaching for 'which had' on the feeling that a completed event needs the past perfect, when the main clause is present.
In this paper the cloze occupies English Q.21 to Q.25 as blanks 1 to 5 of a single passage. A relative-pronoun blank of the same kind is asked 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.24, where 'the ravages of smallpox, (4)____ left their faces pitted' keys which.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.