Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate preposition:
He was sitting _____ the shade of the tree.
A) Over
B) With
C) In
D) Off

Answer 1

Hint: In the given sentence, we have a subject ‘he’, a verb ‘was sitting’ and an object ‘the shade of the tree’. We do not know where the subject is sitting with respect to the object. This relation will be indicated by a preposition. Hence, the options provided to us are all prepositions.

Complete answer:
We can see that the sentence does not provide us with the proposition that will indicate the relation between the subject’s action and the object. Thus, we need to choose the correct preposition by comparing them. Words like ‘with’ and ‘in’ indicate close proximity, while ‘off’ indicates distance. The word ‘over’ indicates a direction.

Now let us look into the given options:
Option A) Over – The word ‘over’ is a preposition and is used to indicate that something is at a higher position with respect to the object. For e.g. The cat jumped over the fence. This option is not suitable for the blank as the subject is not at a higher position as compared to the object. Thus, this option is incorrect.
Option B) With – ‘With’ is a preposition used for indicating that something is in the same place as another thing. For e.g. The phone was kept with the laptop. “Sitting with the shade” is an improper phrase, as ‘shade’ represents an area rather than a thing. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
Option C) In – ‘In’ is used to indicate that something is located within the premises of another object. For e.g. The books are kept in the cupboard. This can be correctly used to fill the blank, “He was sitting in the shade of the tree”. Therefore, this is the correct option.
Option D) Off – The word ‘off’ is used to indicate that something is away or going away from another thing. For e.g. The thief ran off with my bag. This word is not suitable for the blank in the given statement. This option is wrong.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (C) i.e, He was sitting in the shade of the tree.

Note: Sometimes one might get confused between ‘in’, ‘under’ and ‘beneath’. One might say, ‘under the shade of the tree’ but it is not correct. ‘Under’ is used for something that is at a lower position. We do not sit at a lower position than the shade. We sit ‘in’ the shade. We sit ‘under’ the tree. ‘Beneath’ is used interchangeably with ‘under’ informal conversations.