Question

Fill in the blank with an appropriate word:
Sheila’s grandmother found it difficult to climb ________ the steep staircase.

Answer 1

Hint: Prepositions are only used to denote the location of a noun, not any other time. They can really help to clear up the meaning of the sentence or even emphasize it at times.

Complete answer:
Prepositions are words that are used to show positions, locations, direction, and time. They are usually in front of nouns and gerunds.
Example - In the sentence ‘There is a lamp on the table’, the word ‘on’ describes the location of the lamp. So, it is a preposition. There are many verb + preposition combinations in English, which are easy to learn, like ‘go up’. Prepositions indicate relationships between other words in a sentence. They can be extremely important parts of a sentence, as they can give you important insight into the meaning of the sentence.
For example, in the sentence ‘We saw a movie at the theatre’, we understand where the movie was seen. It clearly conveys that the movie was not seen at any other location. This is an example of a preposition of location. There are many more kinds of prepositions.
Depending on which preposition is used after a verb, the meaning of the sentence can completely change. The preposition used makes a big difference. For example, ‘turn back’ and ‘turn off’ have two completely different meanings, even though the root verb is the same.
Similarly in the given sentence, when we break it down, we understand the meaning to be that the grandmother had some difficulty in performing the action of climbing the stairs. The preposition in this case will potentially help us understand in which direction she was going.
It is more difficult to climb in an upward direction, and the sentence is then given its full meaning. The corresponding preposition is ‘up’. The full verb phrase along with the preposition would be ‘to climb up’.
So, the correct answer is: Sheila’s grandmother found it difficult to climb up the steep staircase.

Note: Make sure to go through the parts of speech of the sentence and choose the preposition that makes the most sense. Also, make sure that the sentence remains grammatically correct.