Question

Fill in the blank with the most suitable articles.
We were admiring _______ beauty of Cleopatra but my friend said, "__________ beauty is skin deep."
a) the, no article
b) the, the
c) no article, no article
d) a, the

Answer 1

Hint: An article is (grammar) a determiner that may indicate the specificity of reference of a noun phrase.

Complete answer:
In the given question, we have to find out which of the options given to us provides an article in the first blank (as beauty is of Cleopatra is specified) and provides no article for the second (as beauty is an abstract noun).
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question-
Option (a.), 'the, no article', is correct as it uses the definite article ‘the’ for the first blank (the is used for specific references) and no article for the second.
Option (b.), ‘the, the', is incorrect as it uses ‘the’ for the second blank which is not needed as ‘beauty’ is an abstract unspecified noun.
Option (c.), ‘no article, no article', is incorrect as the first blank requires a definite article as beauty is of Cleopatra is specified.
Option (d.), ‘a, the', refers to ‘a’ which is an indefinite article used for a nonspecific reference.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as ‘beauty of Cleopatra’ is a specific reference.

Note:
In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of the definite and indefinite article. The definite article is a determiner (as `the' in English) that indicates the specificity of reference. The indefinite article is a determiner (as `a' or `some' in English) that indicates nonspecific reference.