Question

Fill in the blanks with the suitable prepositions:
Mike is sitting ________ the desk ______ front of the door.
a) At / in
b) In / on
c) On / on
d) At / on

Answer 1

Hint: A preposition is a function word that combines with a noun or pronoun or noun phrase to form a prepositional phrase that can have an adverbial or adjectival relation to some other word.

Complete answer:
In the given question, we have to find out which of the options given to us includes-
A preposition that indicates location/ place for the first blank, as a desk is a location in the sentence.
A preposition that indicates being at a place where it is in front of a door, i.e being surrounded by that place.
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question-
Option (a.), 'at/in', refers to ‘at’ which means ‘in or very near a particular place’ and ‘in’ which means ‘contained by; surrounded by.’.
Therefore, option (a.) is correct as ‘at’ indicates the location and ‘in’ indicates being surrounded at a certain place.
Option (b.), ‘in/on', refers to ‘on’ which means ‘Positioned at the upper surface of, touching from above.’Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect as it does not indicate being surrounded at a certain place.
Option (c.), ‘on/on', refers to ‘on’ for both the blanks. Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect as it does not indicate the location or indicate being surrounded at a certain place.
Option (d.), ‘at/on', refers to ‘on’ which means ‘Positioned at the upper surface of, touching from above.’Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as it does not indicate being surrounded at a certain place.

Note:
In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of location. Location is a point or extent in space; a determination of the place where something is. For example- They shot the film on location in Nevada.