Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
The teacher was angry ___ the student’s conduct.
a. at
b. about
c. with
d. by

Answer 1

Hint: Prepositions are the function words that combine a noun phrase or used to show a relationship between words in a sentence. For example, she was worried about her studies. Here, about is a preposition that is being used to connect the verb, ‘worried’ with the noun phrase, ‘her studies’.

Complete answer:
From the hint given to us, we understand the meaning of a preposition. Let us analyse the given options one by one to find the correct answer.
a. ‘At’ is used to show the cause of something. For example, everyone laughs at her jokes. We observe that it correctly fits the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘a’ is the correct answer.
b. ‘About’ is used to indicate a reference. For example, Sara did not know about the upcoming event. We observe that it does not correctly fit the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘b’ is not the correct answer.
c. ‘With’ is used to indicate a relationship. For example, Sara was not happy with her husband. We observe that it does not correctly fit the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘c’ is not the correct answer.
d. ‘By’ is used to indicate the doer. For example, this novel was written by Leo Tolstoy. We observe that it does not correctly fit the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘d’ is not the correct answer.
Thus, we can conclude that the correct answer is option ‘a’ - ‘at’.

Note: One may confuse between using the prepositions ‘at’ and ‘with’, in the given context of the sentence. ‘At’ is used when the cause is a situation whereas ‘with’ is used when the cause is a person.