Question

As a century draws and to a close, people start behaving much like people coming to the end of a long life. People approaching death often start reflecting on the events of their lives. Similarly, people alive in 1999 ______.
Complete the paragraph logically.
______ started reflecting on the events of the twentieth century.
______ started to reflect on the events of their lives.
______ started to fear death.
______ started to wonder what the year 2000 would bring.

Answer 1

Hint: In such types of questions, try to make out the exact meaning of the given paragraph and then add on all the four options, and check which one fits the best.

Complete answer:
 Paragraph conveys – When a person starts to get closer to his/her death, he/she reflects all the events in which he/she lived in his/her life. It is a kind of psychological paragraph that tells a philosophical aspect of life. We have to complete the sentence after ‘people alive in 1999’.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer :
Option ‘a’ – This option matches the point of the given paragraph completely, without any mistake. The initial paragraph is conveying the same meaning which this given option is trying to convey. This way, we know that the whole paragraph is connected.
Option ‘b’ – This sentence wouldn’t make a good pair with the already given phrase, ‘people alive in 1999’. So, this is the wrong answer.
Option ‘c’ – This sentence is not logical as people who are living in 1999 wouldn’t fear death. There is no given reason which states this fact, so this is also an incorrect option.
Option ‘d’ – This phrase is also illogical, with no connected meaning to the given paragraph. The paragraph is talking about how one's life reflects its past, unlike this given option.
As we have analyzed all the given options, we can easily figure out the correct option. Here, the phrase which will complete the given paragraph would be – Started reflecting on the events of the twentieth century. Hence, the option ‘a’ is the correct option.

Note:
You must make out a gist of the given paragraph and read it twice, carefully. This way you'll know the better meaning of the paragraph. The answer should always be connected to the paragraph, otherwise, it will be the wrong answer.