Question

Fill in the blanks with the most suitable articles-
Water is necessary for ____ life but ___ life of these insects does not depend on water.
(a)no article, no article
(b)no article, the
(c)the, the
(d)a, the

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and try to understand what it is trying to convey. You can use the hit and trial method to see which of the options fits the context well.

Complete answer: Articles, ‘a, an and the’ are used with nouns to form appropriate noun phrases. We use articles to identify whether the mentioned noun is specific or generalized. They are determiners that help in describing a noun.
Let’s look at the two types of articles-
(i)Indefinite articles- ‘A and an’ are known as indefinite articles. They are used with generalized nouns. We use ‘a’ with singular nouns that begin with a consonant sound, whereas ‘an’ is used with singular nouns that begin with a vowel sound. For Example- An owl, an apricot, an eagle, a ball, etc.
(ii)Definite article- ‘The’ is a definite article. It is used with particular nouns and proper nouns. We use ‘the’ with both singular and plural nouns. Example- The USA, the tree, the boy, etc.
In the given question- We can comprehend that water is necessary for life but the life of these insects does not depend on water. We have used ‘the’ with the second blank because we are talking about specific insects.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘no article, no article’ is an incorrect option because we need to use the definite article with insects.
Option b- ‘no article, the’ is the correct option because we are talking about specific insects.
Option c- ‘the, the’ is an incorrect option because we do not use ‘the’ with general nouns.
Option d- ‘a, the’ is an incorrect option because we do use an article with the noun ‘life’.
The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note: Articles act as adjectives because they help in describing nouns. Keep in mind, we cannot use indefinite articles to modify plural nouns.