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 4.
- (a)which
- (b)that
- (c)when
- (d)who
Answer
Why
Correct — A. The passage sentence carrying blank 4 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 comma before the gap. It makes the relative clause non-defining — extra information, not identification — and "that" is barred from non-defining clauses.
The antecedent, smallpox, is a thing and not a person, so the pronoun is which. It is also the subject of "left", which is why no other subject appears in the clause.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)that — "That" introduces defining clauses only and is not used after a comma, so it cannot open the non-defining clause this punctuation sets up.
- (c)when — "When" introduces a clause about time and cannot serve as the subject of "left". The antecedent here is a disease, not a point in time.
- (d)who — "Who" refers to people. The noun immediately before the blank is "smallpox", so "who" has nothing to attach to.
Concept
English marks two kinds of relative clause.
A defining clause narrows the noun down and takes no comma: "the disease that scarred them".
A non-defining clause adds information about a noun already identified, and is fenced off with a comma: "smallpox, which left their faces pitted and scarred".
The comma is the whole test. Once it is there, "that" is out, and the choice narrows to "which" for things and "who" for people — after which the antecedent decides.
Some readers take the antecedent to be the whole preceding idea rather than "smallpox" alone.
Either reading still gives which: sentential "which", the kind that refers back to an entire clause, is also a non-defining use.
Key facts
- A comma before a relative pronoun signals a non-defining clause, and "that" cannot be used there.
- "Which" refers to things and "who" to people, and both can head a non-defining clause.
- In "smallpox, which left their faces pitted and scarred", "which" is the subject of the verb "left".
Study next
Common traps
- Reaching for "that" out of habit — correct in a defining clause, banned after a comma.
- Looking for a time word because the passage mentioned a century two lines earlier.
SSC tests relative pronouns in both the cloze and the error-spotting formats, and the deciding signals are almost always the same two: the punctuation before the blank, and whether the antecedent is a person or a thing.
It is the only blank in this passage settled by punctuation — the other four turn on collocation and part of speech (English Q.21 to Q.25, 09 Sep 2024, 12:30).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.