Select the most appropriate word/s to fill in the blank.

Only ______ girls were present in the class today.

a few

The most appropriate word/s to fill in the blank is a few.

The sentence indicates that there were only a small number of girls present in the class today. The words "a few" and "several" are both used to refer to a small number of things. However, the word "a few" is more specific than the word "several". It is used to refer to a small number of things that are clearly identifiable. In this sentence, the speaker is clearly able to identify the few girls who were present in the class today.

The words "many" and "a lot of" are both used to refer to a large number of things. However, they are not appropriate in this sentence because they would suggest that there were a lot of girls present in the class today, which is not the case.