Five Blanks: Relative Clause, Participle, Concession, Inversion
A 110-word paragraph contains five numbered blanks. The student's answers are: (1) that, (2) Have, (3) Although, (4) outweighing, (5) the public learned. The paragraph reads: 'The proposal, (1) ___ had been debated for months, was finally approved. (2) ___ consulted local residents, the council added two conditions. (3) ___ the added cost, the plan moved forward. The mayor argued that the benefits would (4) ___ the drawbacks. Not until the vote (5) ___ how narrow the margin was.' The options are: (1) which / that / what; (2) Having / Have / To have; (3) Despite / Although / Because; (4) outweigh / outweighing / be outweighed; (5) did the public learn / the public learned / the public did learn. The section tests grammar in context, not isolated rules.
1. Correct all five answers and explain the two most important corrections: blank 1 and blank 5.
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Correct answers: (1) which, (2) Having, (3) Despite, (4) outweigh, (5) did the public learn.
Blank 1: the clause is set off by commas and is non-defining, so 'that' is impossible in standard written English. 'Which' refers to 'The proposal.' 'What' cannot take 'The proposal' as antecedent. The comma pair is the decisive clue.
Blank 5: 'Not until' at the beginning triggers subject-auxiliary inversion in the main clause: 'Not until the vote did the public learn...' The student's 'the public learned' keeps normal order and is ungrammatical after fronted 'Not until.' The meaning is 'the public learned only at the vote,' not 'the public did learn' with emphatic do; the auxiliary must precede the subject because of the negative adverbial.
2. Explain blank 3 and blank 2. Why are 'Although' and 'Have' wrong?
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Blank 3 needs 'Despite' because it is followed by a noun phrase, 'the added cost.' 'Although' requires a finite clause: 'Although the plan added cost,...' 'Because' would reverse the logic: the sentence says the plan moved forward in spite of the cost, not as a result of it. The contrast is concessive.
Blank 2 needs 'Having consulted,' a perfect participle clause meaning 'after the council had consulted.' The subject of the participle is 'the council,' which is also the subject of the main clause, so the construction is grammatical. 'Have consulted' is a finite verb with no subject and cannot open the sentence this way. 'To have consulted' would suggest purpose or a nominal phrase, not a prior action. The sequence is: consultation happened first, then conditions were added. The perfect participle marks that anteriority.