Question

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate option:
A queue of people were waiting _____ the last bus.
a) On
b) at
c) of
d) for

Answer 1

Hint: We have to use the correct preposition. The word preposition means we have to find out the relation between the object and the subject given in the sentence. The preposition has the word position in it so we talk about the position of the subject with relation to the object in the given sentence. The given sentence has a queue of people as the subject and the last bus is the object. With the correct preposition, we can determine the appropriate relationship between the queue of people and the last bus.

Complete answer:
 Option a is wrong because people cannot wait on a bus. That means that they are standing on top of the bus which is incorrect.
Option b is wrong because people waiting at the last bus does not really talk about an appropriate relation between people and the last bus. People wait at the bus stop but they do not wait at the bus.
Option c is also incorrect because a queue of people were waiting of the last bus does not make sense. Of is used usually to show the content of something, for example, the dress was made of cotton. This shows the content of the dress was cotton.
Eliminating all the other three options leaves us with option d which is the correct answer. The preposition “for” is used to show a purpose/reason. In general usage, people wait for something. Thus, in this case, people were waiting for the last bus.

Note:
 Prepositions can always be used in sentences of your own if you are confused with the sentence given in the question. Always try to determine the preposition by seeing the possible relation between the given subject and the object.