Question

In the modern industrial age, the demand for 46 technical personnel is much more than in the feudal age because the demand for goods is much more owing to increase in population and other factors. Hence, the traditional feudal method of teaching a craft, in which only a handful of persons were taught, would no longer 47 for modern society.

Now, technical institutes or engineering colleges, where a large number of students are taught technical skills, have become 48. Obviously, all these students could not be sons of the teacher. This 49 the very basis of the caste system in which one had no option in choosing one's vocation and had to follow one's father's profession. The caste system, in which one's vocation is chosen by one's birth, is thus totally 50 in the modern age.

From the following select the appropriate word to replace number 49 in the above passage.

• A. Destroyed
• B. Cleared
• C. Smothered
• D. Diluted

Hint:

The phrase "very basis" signals a complete undoing, not a partial change.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The sentence states that since students at institutes could not all be the teacher's sons, this fact "___ the very basis of the caste system."

1. (a) Destroyed: If vocation was inherited only from father to son, teaching outsiders in institutes breaks that link completely, so "destroyed" fits the strong phrase "the very basis."
2. (b) Cleared: This word does not naturally describe undermining a social system, it suggests removing an obstacle instead.
3. (c) Smothered: This implies suppressing something that still exists underneath, weaker than the total undoing the passage describes.
4. (d) Diluted: This suggests only a partial weakening, but the passage speaks of the "very basis," implying a complete break.

Option (a), destroyed, matches the strength of the claim about the "very basis" of the caste system.