In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Social media companies (1)______ claim that they promote democracy and are dedicated to the empowerment of ordinary individuals. The assertion (2)______ entirely unfounded. Recent history shows how (3)______ citizens have been mobilised against totalitarian regimes on social networking sites. Starting from MeToo to Black Lives Matter, digital networks (4)______ indispensable in bringing together critical voices against social and political (5)______ .
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank no. 5.
- (a)democracy
- (b)election
- (c)justice
- (d)injustice
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The blank is governed by against: 'bringing together critical voices against social and political ______'.
Critical voices are raised against something objectionable, so the noun in the blank has to name a wrong.
injustice does. It is an abstract mass noun, needs no article, and 'social and political injustice' is an ordinary collocation → option (d).
The sentence supplies its own check: MeToo and Black Lives Matter are named as what those voices came together over.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)democracy — democracy reverses the passage. Its first sentence has the companies promoting democracy, and sentence 3 has citizens mobilised against totalitarian regimes.
- (b)election — election names a countable event, not a wrong to oppose. 'Social and political election' is not an English collocation, and the bare singular has no article.
- (c)justice — justice is the polarity trap: same root, opposite sign. Critical voices are not raised against justice, and the blank sits directly after against.
Concept
A preposition fixes the semantic role of the noun that follows it. Against takes the thing opposed, so the blank is not asking for a topic — it is asking for something a critic would object to.
That one fact sorts the options immediately: democracy and justice name goods, election names a procedure, and injustice names a wrong.
Injustice is justice carrying the negating prefix in-. Putting both members of such a pair on the same list is what makes the item hard, so read the prefix, not the root.
'Social and political justice' is a familiar phrase in its own right, which is why justice feels natural if you read the blank without the preposition in front of it.
Key facts
- Against after words like voices, protest or campaign takes the thing opposed, so it selects a negative noun.
- Injustice is formed from justice with the negating prefix in-.
- Election is a count noun and needs an article or a plural, which the bare slot does not supply.
- The passage's first sentence has the companies promoting democracy, so voices against democracy would contradict it.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing justice because 'social and political justice' is a familiar phrase, without reading the preposition.
- Carrying 'democracy' down from the first sentence simply because it is the passage's own word.
- Treating the last blank as decorative when it carries the sentence's point.
The last blank of a cloze can be lexical or grammatical — 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.25 keys the adjective 'fast-paced', 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.25 keys the verb 'spreading', and 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.25 keys the auxiliary string 'should not be restricted'.
This shift also tests word opposites outside a passage, at English Q.19 (antonym of 'insert') and English Q.11 ('active' → inert).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.