Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
He’s studying _____ chemistry at ______ university at ______ present.
(a)No article/the/the
(b)A/the/no article
(c)No article/no article/no article
(d)No article/a/the

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence carefully. Try to make out the core meaning of it. Find out the subject, predicate and the object of the given sentence.

Complete answer:In the given sentence, the blanks have to be filled with articles. An article is any member or a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases.
An indefinite article is used when we are talking generally about something whereas a definite article is used when we are talking about something specific.The indefinite articles are 'a' and 'an'. An is used before a word starting with a vowel or vowel sound. A is used before a word starting with a consonant or consonant sound. A definite article is an article that tells the uniqueness of something.'The' is the only definite article.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct option :
(a)’No article/the/the’- here, ‘No article’ is correct for the first blank in the sentence but ‘the’ cannot be put before the term ‘university’ as it is a general term, meaning we are not talking about a specific university. So, this option is incorrect.
(b)’A/the/no article’ - here, ‘a’ does not fit the first blank as Chemistry does not need to be preceded by an article. Similarly, as discussed in the earlier option, ‘the’ cannot be put before the term ‘university’. hence, this option is incorrect.
(c)’No article/no article/no article’ - it is the correct option as no article is needed in the given sentence. All the three blanks won't take any article as 'chemistry' is the name of a subject, 'university' is not specific and 'present refers to time which is uncountable.
(d)’No article/a/the’-it is also an incorrect option as 'the' cannot be used before the word 'present' in the sentence and ‘a’ cannot be used before the term ‘chemistry’.
Hence, the correct answer is option ‘c’ - no article /no article/ no article. The complete sentence would be the same – ‘He’s studying chemistry at university at present.’

Note:All the other options are plausible distractions. You must know the usage of two types of articles – definite and indefinite.