Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.

Keats and Shelley were poets of the same period; they were ______.

contemporaries

The correct answer is contemporaries.

• Colleagues are people who work together. Keats and Shelley were not colleagues, as they did not work together in the same profession.
• Associates are people who are connected in some way, but not necessarily closely. Keats and Shelley were not close friends, but they were associates in the sense that they were both poets of the same period.
• Acquaintances are people who know each other slightly, but not well. Keats and Shelley met a few times, but they were not close acquaintances.
• Contemporaries are people who live or existed at the same time. Keats and Shelley were both born in the late 18th century and died in the early 19th century, so they were contemporaries.