The athlete jumped __________ over the hurdle.

The correct answer is Option (2) → easily

An adverb is a word that tells how, when, where or how much something happens. It can also describe an adjective or another adverb, for example she sings sweetly, very hot.

Complete sentence: The athlete jumped easily over the hurdle. The blank describes the verb “jumped”, so it needs an adverb of manner. When an adjective ends in a consonant + y, the y changes to i before -ly.

Option	What it tells	Example
(1) ease	a noun meaning lack of difficulty: alone it cannot describe “jumped” (we would need “with ease”)	He lifted the heavy box with ease.
(2) easily (answer)	easy becomes easily: without difficulty	Kavya solved the sum easily.
(3) easing	the -ing form of the verb “ease” (to make something less painful or less difficult): it does not tell how he jumped	The medicine is easing my headache.
(4) eased	the past form of the verb “ease”: two past verbs cannot stand side by side here	The traffic eased after the signal was fixed.