Question:
Choose the correct option out of the four choices given.
Our tragic experience in the recent past provides an index ______ the state of lawlessness in this region.
Choose the correct option out of the four choices given.
Our tragic experience in the recent past provides an index ______ the state of lawlessness in this region.
Our tragic experience in the recent past provides an index ______ the state of lawlessness in this region.
Show Hint
Here "index" means an indicator or gauge. Ask which preposition follows "a measure ___ poverty" or "a sign ___ decay".
Updated On: Jul 17, 2026
- of
- in
- at
- by
Show Solution
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The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
The blank follows the noun "index". Here "index" is not the list at the back of a book, it means a sign or measure that shows what something is like. When a noun names a sign or measure of something, the thing being measured is introduced by "of": a sign of trouble, a measure of success, an index of lawlessness.
- of: This links a noun to the thing it belongs to or stands for. "An index of the state of lawlessness" says the experience serves as a measure of that lawlessness, which is exactly the intended sense.
- in: "In" marks position inside something. "An index in the state of lawlessness" would place the index inside the lawlessness, which is not what the writer means.
- at: "At" points to a fixed spot or time. A measure does not sit at the thing it measures, so this cannot join the two nouns here.
- by: "By" shows the agent or the means, as in "a book written by him". The lawlessness is not doing the indexing, it is what gets indexed, so "by" reverses the relationship.
The correct option is (A) of. The sentence reads: "Our tragic experience in the recent past provides an index of the state of lawlessness in this region."
Let's summarize:
- Index in the sense of a sign or measure takes "of" before what is being measured.
- "In" and "at" are positional, and "by" marks the doer, so all three break the noun to noun link needed here.
The answer is (A) of.
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