Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word:
The child grew ____ when his father entered the room.
A. Silent
B. Silently
C. Happily
D. Up

Answer 1

Hint:An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Adjectives are one of the main parts of speech of the English language classed together with nouns.

Complete answer:
In the sentence, we know that the word 'child' will be modified. 'Child' is a noun and hence the correct option should modify the noun.
Option A: 'Silent' is an adjective. Adjectives describe or modify nouns. In the given sentence, 'silent' describes the noun 'child'. ('The child grew silent' means that the child became silent.) Hence this is the correct option.
Option B: 'Silently' is an adverb and describes the manner in which an action is done. Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs and other adverbs. But they do not modify nouns. Since the noun 'child' is to be modified, this is not the correct option.
Option C: Similarly, 'happily' is also an adverb of manner and modifies an action word (verb). It does not modify 'child' and is hence wrong.
Option D: 'Up' refers to a higher place or position. It forms a phrase 'grew up' which means 'to become older or more mature'. This meaning isn't relevant to the given sentence, as one cannot grow in such a short period of time (when his father entered the room). Hence this option is incorrect.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun (age, size color, etc.) while others provide someone’s evaluation or judgment about something or somebody (nice, horrid, beautiful, etc.). In this article, we’ll look at these two types of adjectives and how they are used in our speech.