In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Global warming is a major problem. The result will be the problems created by the rising temperatures of the Arctic region. As a result of global warming, (1)_________ in rainfall and plant distribution affect the migration patterns, feeding behaviour, and breeding preferences of numerous bird species. The increase in the temperature may also alter ocean currents, which may alter the (2)__________ ecology as a whole. Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for the ongoing melting of the Arctic. This will result in a (3)__________loop since greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere and the additional emissions may (4)__________ the global warming process. Now, the only way to reverse the harm is for every person to be environmentally sensitive. This may offer us hope that we will be able to leave a green planet to our future generations, who presently appear to face (5)__________.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 4.
- (a)hinder
- (b)repress
- (c)restrain
- (d)accelerate
Answer
Why
Correct — D. The blank sits in the reason clause: greenhouse gases trap the heat in the atmosphere, and the additional emissions may ___ the global warming process.
The sentence has just called this a loop, and a loop exists only if the extra emissions push the warming on. Accelerate is the one word offered that does that.
Hinder, repress and restrain all mean to check or hold back, so each of them breaks the logic the sentence has set up → option (d).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)hinder — Hinder means to obstruct or slow down. Emissions that hindered warming would close the loop the sentence is building, not complete it.
- (b)repress — Repress means to hold down or suppress, and it is used of feelings, revolts and impulses rather than of a physical process like warming.
- (c)restrain — Restrain means to keep something under control, which faces the wrong way in a clause about additional emissions on top of trapped heat.
Concept
When three of the four options are near-synonyms, the odd word out is where the answer has to lie, because a question cannot have three correct answers.
Hinder, repress and restrain all describe holding back. Accelerate alone means speeding up, so the item shrinks to one decision: does this sentence need speeding up or holding back?
The loop named in the previous blank answers it. Heat trapped in the atmosphere plus further emissions can only drive the process harder.
This blank and blank 3 are a single argument in one sentence, so solve them together — vicious loop and accelerate confirm each other, and neither reading survives on its own.
Key facts
- Accelerate means to increase the speed or the rate of something.
- Hinder, repress and restrain all describe slowing, checking or holding down.
- Blank 3 and blank 4 fall in the same sentence of this passage, so their answers have to point the same way.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing hinder because the passage's message is that warming should be stopped — the blank reports what emissions do, not what the writer wants.
- Treating repress and restrain as different enough that one of them must be the intended word.
Blanks that turn on direction — speed up or slow down — also appear on 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.23, where the impact on human health is 'likely to' accelerate.
Read the sentence's own logic rather than the writer's sympathies.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.