Fill in the Blanks

Note:  All CAT prep is divided into 2 parts – 1) Theoretical Gyan – How to study    2) Practical Application – How to Solve. This article is about the second part of Fill in the Blanks

FILL IN THE BLANKS

The Verbal Ability questions in CAT can take myriad forms. One of the common variants is the FIB question. No! These types of questions are not about lying but rather about what should lie in between a given set of words. To give them their full name: FILL IN THE BLANKS.

I prescribe the MTV Roadies approach to solving Fill in the Blank type of question in the CAT and other MBA examinations. If you asked - What the 'Beep" is the MTV Roadies approach?!! You got that exactly right!! We can guess the kind of words the Beep represents!Right? From the overall context!

 In a very similar manner certain words in the FIB question statement will be 'beeped' out and you must understand the context of the sentence to be able to understand the word behind the beep (s).

FIB-bing is mostly a test of vocabulary!

Over the years, these questions have been tested in one form or the other. A basic question would involve a sentence, with the critical word blanked out.

There could be a single blank or double blanks (2008). Or there might be an inappropriate word inserted in the sentence which you will have to replace with the appropriate word (2005). Or a blank may be given and they may ask you to choose the the answer option which does NOT fit the blank.

 Based on the overall meaning of the sentence, one needs to choose the best option that fits. Having a good vocabulary helps. But apart from that some intelligent elimination could make your life easy.

Let's see how we can do that:

Step 1: Look at the answer options: If there is more than one word among the answer options that you have never seen before, it may make sense to skip the question. You do not have the luxury of time or experimentation in the CAT.

If the answer options look like this :- (CAT 2008)

(1)tenets;fixation
(2)aspects;inhibitions
(3)institutions;inhibitions
(4)organs;traditions
(5)departments;repulsions

And you have no clue what a tenet is nor do you have any idea about inhibitions chances are that you will end up choosing the wrong answer and wasting time and losing marks. You should rather look at some other question.

Step – 2:  Restate the sentence in your own words. If you clear step 1 try to summarize the sentence in your own words. If you are not able to do that there is some disconnect and you should skip the question.

(CAT 2008)

Every human being, after the first few days of his life, is a product of two factors: on the one hand, there is his __________ endowment; and on the other hand, there is the effect of environment, including __________. 

On reading this sentence you should be able to grasp that this sentence deals with the topic of the effect of nature vs. nurture on how a man develops. Being able to repeat the sentence in your own words gives you the confidence that you can handle the topic.

Step 3: Feel the Blank: If you decide to go ahead with the question just think what could be behind the 'beep'. Instead of trying to fit the answer options in the given blanks try to visualize what words would you have put in the gaps if you were the writer. And see which of the answer options is a synonym for your word.

           Step 3 needs to be broken down into further subdivisions:-

       3a) Identify the tone: How would you label it? Criticism, praise, pessimism, optimism, neutral etc.   

After making ______ remarks to the President, the reporter was not invited to return to the White House pressroom.
a. hospitable b. itinerant c. enterprising d. chivalrous e. irreverent

Obviously this reporter has said something that has annoyed the President and so you can rule out a) c) and d) which are positive words. We are looking for a negative word and itinerant only means traveling from place to place which is neutral. So your answer is irreverent

       3b) Is there any contrast/support mentioned. Or something that presents opposing/favoring views in the sentence?

Replace the word in bold with the most appropriate alternative (CAT 2005)

Intelligent design derives from an early 19th-century explanation of the natural world given by an English clergyman, William Paley. Paley was the populariser of the famous watchmaker analogy. Proponents of intelligent design are crupping Paley's argumentwith a new gloss from molecular biology.

(a)    destroying (b) testing (c) resurrecting (d) questioning

In the last sentence, crupping ........ new gloss' shows that the word, ' crupping has been used to favour Paley's argument, as with a gloss' means making it look more attractive than it actually is. So destroying, testing and questioning are negative words in the context of the passage.

        3 c) Is there any restatement/ cause and effect/ comparison involved which helps you understand the nature of the missing word.

Rahul  went abroad as a ______ young man; when he returned two years later, he seemed like an experienced man of the world.

a.       sardonic b. egalitarian c. reticent d. callow e. loquacious

Clearly the blank has to be filled with a word which is the opposite of experienced. Callow fits the bill.

How to practice:?  Team up with a friend.. Select certain websites with quality material especially which carry opinion pieces/editorials. Ask your friend to select a passage; Copy it onto a word document. Delete 8-10 words from the passage from different sentences. You do the same for your friend. Exchange Word docs and try to guess the missing words. Check whether you had some kind of an idea about the nature of the missing word. With consistent practice you will find that you will be actually able to predict the answer options in the Mock Cats and CAT rather than fit the answer to the blank.

All the Best for CAT 2016