Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
We lived ____ the suburb ____ a big city ____ the factory where father worked.
a) at/in/at
b) in/before/of
c) of/by/to
d) through/at/on
e) in/of/near

Answer 1

Hint: Try to verbally say the sentence out loud which will help you find the right answer. The placement of these places should also help you to find the right answer. For example, suburbs usually belong to the city.

Complete answer:
 A preposition is a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause.
For example, in the sentence ‘The cat is under the table’, the preposition ‘under’ tells us the exact location of the noun ‘the cat’.

In the given sentence, there are three main things which we need to know the location of - the suburb, the big city, and the factory. First, let’s look at the relationship between a suburb and a city. The city is where the suburb is, so the city owns the suburb. It is a part of the city. Then, the factory and the city have no relation, which means that there must be a preposition signifying the proximity of the factory to the city. The first blank should be filled by a simple preposition that signifies where the subjects lived.

Now, let’s look at the available options-
a) at/in/at - All three of these prepositions do not fit. They are all wrong for the given sentence and they do not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) in/before/of - The first preposition fits. However, the rest of the prepositions do not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) of/by/to - All three of these prepositions do not fit. They are all wrong for the given sentence and they do not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) through/at/on - All three of these prepositions do not fit. They are all wrong for the given sentence and they do not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
e) in/of/near - All three of these prepositions fit into the given sentence. They are all perfect for the context of the given sentence. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.

Note:
Try to understand the meaning of the given sentence completely, and go through the given options one by one. It will help you to choose the required option accordingly.