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GATE 2023 IN GA Q.1: solution and answer

GATE 2023 · INGA Q.1 · 1 mark · MCQ

The village was nestled in a green spot, ______ the ocean and the hills.

  1. (A)

    through

  2. (B)

    in

  3. (C)

    at

  4. (D)

    between

See the question in the paper
GATE 2023 IN GA question 1Tap to open full size

Answer and solution

ANSWER

The answer is (D) between: "The village was nestled in a green spot, between the ocean and the hills."

Official answer: DSource: Official answer key, GATE 2023 IN (IIT Kanpur)

  1. The blank needs a preposition that places the green spot relative to two separate things, "the ocean" and "the hills", which are joined by "and".

  2. Rule: between is the preposition for a position with one thing on each side. It fits the fixed pattern "between X and Y".

  3. through (A) describes movement from one side of something to the other. A village that is "nestled" stays in one place, so it cannot be "through the ocean and the hills". Rejected.

  4. in (B) would put the spot inside both the ocean and the hills at once. A green patch of land cannot be inside the ocean. Rejected.

  5. at (C) marks a single point ("at the shore"). It cannot describe a position relative to two landmarks joined by "and". Rejected.

  6. between (D) puts the ocean on one side of the spot and the hills on the other. That matches the sheltered picture "nestled" suggests. The sentence reads: "The village was nestled in a green spot, between the ocean and the hills."

KEY IDEA

When a sentence places something relative to two separate things joined by "and" ("______ X and Y"), the preposition is between. Among is for a group of three or more, and at, in and through do not take a two-part "X and Y" object of place.

WATCH OUT FOR

Picking "in" because "nestled in" appears earlier in the sentence. That "in" belongs to "a green spot". The blank has to describe where the spot sits relative to the ocean and the hills, and "in the ocean and the hills" would put land inside the ocean.

From the GATE 2023 IN paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 32 Grammar & vocabulary questions, with notes

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