Question

“_______English cannot make _______ good coffee,” she thought, leaving ________ restaurant. Choose the most appropriate word to fill the blank.
A. The/a/an
B. An/no article/the
C. No article/the/the
D. A/no article/a
E. The/no article/ the

Answer 1

Hint: Articles are referred to as a type of adjectives used before nouns or noun equivalents. There are two types of articles as definite and indefinite articles. Definite article or 'the' is used before a noun to indicate it is identity whereas indefinite is used before a noun that is general or when it is identity is not known. There are also some situations when a noun does not require any article at all. Hence, the use of articles is not inevitable before nouns in every case.

Complete answer:
1. In order to find the appropriate article, we need to go through the given options and see which of the following fits right with the given context.
2. In the first option, we have 'the/a/an'. This pair is incorrect as we can see here we have the article 'an' designated for the third blank and this article is only used with the words starting with vowels which is not the case in the given scenario. Hence, this trio is incorrect.
3. Now, while considering the second option, we can see that article 'an' is designated for the first blank which is incorrect, as we can see the first blank requires a definite article. Therefore, this trio is also incorrect.
4. In the third option, we can see that article 'the' is designated for the second blank which is incorrect as a indefinite article is required to fill that place.
5. Similarly, in the fourth option, article 'a' is directed for the first blank which is not right because here, we can see that there is a requirement of the definite article not an indefinite article.
6. Now, we can see in the fifth option, the definite article 'the' is used for the first blank followed by 'no article' for the second as there is no such requirement of any article here. Lastly, another definite article is used for the third blank which is also in context. Therefore, the fifth pair is correct.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘E’

Note: While using articles one should be very careful of the indefinite ones, more specifically 'an'. The use of this article basically depends on the pronunciation of words. If the first syllable of the given word spells like a vowel then 'an' will be used otherwise not. The fact that whether it actually contains a vowel or not in its first place is not important.