In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. From the beginning (1)_________ the eighteenth century, the ladies of European cities covered (2)_______ faces in layers of paint and powder. This particular fashion was largely brought (3) __________ by the urgent need to disguise the ravages of smallpox, (4)_________ left their faces pitted and scarred. During this same period, the ‘beauty spot’ was introduced to cover (5) __________ a facial defect.
Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 3.
- (a)within
- (b)about
- (c)around
- (d)to
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The passage sentence carrying blank 3 is "This particular fashion was largely brought (3) _____ by the urgent need to disguise the ravages of smallpox, (4) _____ left their faces pitted and scarred."
The trigger is the agent "by" immediately after the gap. "Bring about" means to cause to happen, and its passive is "was brought about by X", where X names the cause.
Here X is "the urgent need to disguise the ravages of smallpox" — the thing that caused the fashion. So the particle is about.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)within — "Bring within" is not an idiom of causation. It appears only where a limit or a boundary follows — "bring within reach", "bring within the scope of" — and nothing here supplies one.
- (c)around — "Bring around" takes a person: to persuade someone round to your view, or to revive someone who has fainted. A fashion produced by a need is neither.
- (d)to — "Bring to" also needs a person or a destination — reviving someone from a faint, or carrying something somewhere. Neither reading gives the sense "caused" that the following "by" demands.
Concept
Phrasal verbs built on bring change meaning completely with the particle: bring about (cause), bring up (raise a child, or raise a topic), bring out (publish, or make evident).
The same verb also gives bring off (succeed at something difficult), bring round / around (persuade, or revive) and bring down (topple, or reduce).
The verb contributes almost nothing; the particle carries the meaning, so these items are recall rather than reasoning.
One structural clue is worth memorising: in a passive sentence, an agent "by" phrase sitting right after the blank points hard at "about".
Read "brought ___ by" as one unit, not "brought" on its own.
Taken literally as "carried", "brought" invites a place word — which is exactly the reading options (a) and (c) are built to reward.
Key facts
- "Bring about" means to cause something to happen, and is common in the passive: "was brought about by".
- "Bring up" means to raise a child, or to introduce a topic in conversation.
- "Bring round" / "bring around" means to persuade someone, or to revive someone who has lost consciousness.
Study next
Common traps
- Reading "brought" literally as "carried" and then looking for a place word such as "within" or "around".
- Skipping the "by" that follows the blank — it marks the cause and points straight at "about".
Particle blanks are the hardest part of the Tier-I cloze, because all four options are real English; SSC picks everyday verbs that support several live particles — bring, take, put, call.
This one passage carries a second particle blank at English Q.25 of this shift (09 Sep 2024, 12:30): "to cover ___ a facial defect".
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.