Passage Completion for CLAT 2020
Passage completion means one has to fill the blanks in a passage so as to give it a sensible meaning. Questions of passage completion are expected to be asked in CLAT as they judge the prudence, vocabulary and knowledge of English grammar of the examinee.
In order to solve the passage completion questions, the aspirants should have a sound knowledge of the English Grammar rules. The questions are to be solved rationally by applying common sense so as to derive a logical meaning of the passage.
Tricks to solve the questions of ‘passage completion’:
Read the entire passage
Firstly, give a quick reading to the entire passage. Read the full passage thoroughly in order to get the main idea behind the passage. By doing this you will get to know what the author is talking about in the passage and will help in choosing the appropriate words from the options to suit the meaning.
Identify the tone of the passage
Secondly, while reading, identify the tone of the passage by checking:
- Whether the passage is narrative of an incident or is it a biography or it states facts about a thing-this will you in accordingly building of the passage.
- Whether the passage is in positive or negative tone. This will help you in eliminating the options.
Identify the tense of the passage
By checking the tense the examinee will be able to use the grammar rules correctly.
Link the sentences
Try to link the sentences with each other, this will help in choosing the correct word so as to build the meaning of the passage.
Eliminating options
Try to put options in the sentence and eliminate the options which negate the meaning of the passage and use the appropriate word to derive a logical meaning.
Let us take an example and apply these tricks in solving this passage completion question:
Someone (1)…at the door. A lady opened it. A stranger was standing at the (2)… He said, “Madam, please excuse me for… (3) you. May I ask you something? I (4)….by your house everyday on my (5)….to work. I have (6)….that every day you hit your son on (7)….head with a loaf of bread”. The lady replied, “Yes, that’s (8)….”. The stranger asked, “This morning, I saw you (9)….him with chocolate. Why (10)….? The lady replied, “ Today is his birthday. Therefore I hit him with a sweet thing”.
- (a) pointed (b) knocked (c) looked (d) moved
- (a) fence (b) gate (c) compound (d) door
- (a) disturbing (b) harassing (c) asking (d) enquiring
- (a) wait (b) watch (c) stand (d) pass
- (a) office (b) steps (c) legs (d) way
- (a) decided (b) felt (c) noticed (d) remembered
In the exam, you will be given a passage like this which will have blanks after every few sentences. Now in order to answer the above-asked question firstly read the entire passage quickly, this will give you a broad outline of the passage.
So on a quick reading, we can figure out that the passage is about a conversation between a man and a lady. The man is asking the lady about something related to hitting her son.
Now keeping that outline in mind lets fill in each blank of the passage
- The first sentence is ‘Someone…at the door’. A lady opened it. So when the door is being opened it surely means someone might have knocked it first. Thus option b will be the answer.
- A stranger was standing at the …. It is quite logical that when the door was opened, the stranger must be standing at the door. Thus option d will be the answer.
- Madam, please excuse me for… you. Now the options given are very close but if you connect the sentences you will get an insight that a stranger is at the door and he is talking to the lady who has opened the door. Any stranger who is initiating a conversation will generally seek an excuse for a disturbance. Thus option (a) will suit the most.
- I….by your house everyday on my (5)….to work. Here just after the blank ‘by’ preposition is used this denotes an action is being done daily and option d gives the best meaning to the sentence in the light of the passage.
- I pass by your house everyday on my….to work. It is very easy to pick up option (d) as the answer because it is the only logical option available to give the meaning to the sentence.
Solving a passage question is very easy the examinee needs to just apply his presence of mind and connect the dots. One thing is to be kept in mind that while filling the blanks don’t change the broad outline of the passage, choose those answers which fit into the larger meaning of the passage.
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Aditya Anand
Contributing author
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