Choose the correct option to fill in the blank in the given sentence:
Although the task seemed ________ at first , consistent efforts made it manageable.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → exhaustive
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun, for example a tall tree, the food is tasty.
Complete sentence: Although the task seemed exhaustive at first, consistent efforts made it manageable. Here the blank describes the task, so it needs an adjective that can describe a task.
| Option | What it tells | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (1) exhaust | Exhaust is a verb (to use up completely, or to tire out). A verb cannot follow "seemed" as a describing word. | Long hours in the sun can exhaust even strong workers. |
| (2) exhausted | Exhausted means very tired. It describes a person, not a task. | The players were exhausted after the match. |
| (3) exhaustive (answer) | Verbs such as seem, look, appear, become are linking verbs: they are followed by an adjective that describes the subject. Exhaustive means very thorough, covering every part of something. It can also mean tending to exhaust, very tiring. A task that seemed exhaustive looked huge and tiring at first, which contrasts with "made it manageable". | The police made an exhaustive search of the area. |
| (4) exhaustively | Exhaustively is an adverb. It tells how an action is done and cannot describe the subject after "seemed". | The lawyers checked the contract exhaustively. |