Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option:
Alice came late, Philip came later, and Tony ________.
A) Latest
B) Last
C) The latest
D) Later

Answer 1

Hint: Degree of comparison defines when an adjective changes in form to show comparison. Degree of comparison is related to the adverbs and adjectives. There are three types of degrees of comparisons and they are: positive, comparative and superlative degrees of comparisons.

Complete answer:
Let us analyze the given options:
Option A) Latest – is an incorrect answer because latest does not fit well in the blank and latest is the superlative degree of comparison but still this word is not appropriately fit. So, this is an incorrect answer.
Option B) Last – is an incorrect answer because last is the positive degree of comparison and we need a superlative degree of comparison. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.
Option C) The latest – is the correct answer because it gives the complete sense in the sentence. “the latest” is the superlative degree of comparison and superlative degree of comparison defines when there are comparisons between two or more nouns then it is called superlative degree of comparisons. Thus, this is the correct answer.
Option D) Later – is an incorrect answer because later does not go well in the sentence. So, ‘Alice came late, Philip came later, and Tony later’ does not give any sense. Thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘C’ i.e, Alice came late, Philip came later, and Tony the latest.

Note: The Superlative Degree denotes the existence of the highest degree of the quality. It is used when more than two things are compared. The given sentence shows increasing order of degree of comparison. The last one has to be superlative and it is used as an emphasising adjective to express the quality of the noun.