Sentence fillers

Stem filling or sentence filler is sentence completion with a variance. In a simple sentence completion, you fill the blank with one of the words given as choices. In this format, part of a sentence is given which needs to be completed with one of the various chunks provided as alternatives. 

The major difference is that now we have a group of words in place of a single word. This requires an understanding of the spirit of the stem of the sentence and the filler part is to be matched with it both in terms of structure and meaning.

We can find a structural clue or a semantic clue or both in the stem part and match the stem with the alternatives one after another. Only one choice will match. Let us see the SFM Technique.

EXAMPLE-1

The doctor warns him that unless he gives up smoking __________

a) Will he be able to recover

b) he will not suffer

c) his health will soon be recovered            

d) he will not recover

'Unless' here demands a 'not' in the filler part. Thus a) and c) are wrong. B) and d) are structurally correct, but according to 'smoking' the expression 'not suffer' is wrong, but 'not recover' is right. Thus d) is the right answer.

EXAMPLE-2

The more we looked at the piece of modern art, ________.

a) It looked better

b) the more we like it

c) we liked it less

d) the less we liked it

e) better we liked it.

In the stem part we have structural clue 'the more' and it is a past tense form. The structural demand is that the filler part also must have an expression like 'the more'. Taking this clue, we can eliminate alternatives a), c) and e). Now alternative b) has 'the more' and the alternative d) has 'the less'. These two are correct, but b) is further eliminated because the filler is in the present tense form, d) is the correct answer because it is in the past tense form.