Question:
In the following sentence, a part is underlined. Choose the best paraphrase for the underlined part from the four given options.
The police searched everywhere but they drew a blank.
In the following sentence, a part is underlined. Choose the best paraphrase for the underlined part from the four given options.
The police searched everywhere but they drew a blank.
The police searched everywhere but they drew a blank.
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When dealing with idioms, always check the surrounding context — many idioms are metaphorical and cannot be understood from literal meanings.
Updated On: Aug 14, 2025
- upset
- did not find any information
- came to an end
- drew a line
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The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Understanding the idiom "drew a blank"
The idiom “draw a blank” means to fail to get a result or fail to find the desired information. It is often used when a search or attempt leads to no success.
Step 2: Contextual meaning in the sentence The sentence says “The police searched everywhere” — this indicates an active investigation. The phrase “but they drew a blank” suggests that despite searching, they could not find anything useful.
Step 3: Elimination of incorrect options
- Option 1 (“upset”) refers to an emotional state and does not fit the investigative context.
- Option 3 (“came to an end”) refers to something finishing but doesn’t convey the idea of failure to find information.
- Option 4 (“drew a line”) means to set a limit or boundary — irrelevant here.
Step 4: Selecting the correct option Option 2 (“did not find any information”) directly matches the meaning of “drew a blank” in this investigative context. \[ \boxed{\text{did not find any information}} \]
Step 2: Contextual meaning in the sentence The sentence says “The police searched everywhere” — this indicates an active investigation. The phrase “but they drew a blank” suggests that despite searching, they could not find anything useful.
Step 3: Elimination of incorrect options
- Option 1 (“upset”) refers to an emotional state and does not fit the investigative context.
- Option 3 (“came to an end”) refers to something finishing but doesn’t convey the idea of failure to find information.
- Option 4 (“drew a line”) means to set a limit or boundary — irrelevant here.
Step 4: Selecting the correct option Option 2 (“did not find any information”) directly matches the meaning of “drew a blank” in this investigative context. \[ \boxed{\text{did not find any information}} \]
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His subject-matter will be determined by the age he lives in — at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job to discipline his temperament, but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They are: (i) Sheer egoism: Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood; (ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm: Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed (iii) Historical impulse: Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity (iv) Political purpose: Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.
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Ideals are a convenient escape, and the teacher who follows them is incapable of understanding his students and dealing with them intelligently; for him, the future ideal, the what should be, is far more important than the present child. The pursuit of an ideal excludes love, and without love no human problem can be solved. If the teacher is of the right kind, he will not depend on a method, but will study each individual pupil. In our relationship with children and young people, we are not dealing with mechanical devices that can be quickly repaired, but with living beings who are impressionable, volatile, sensitive, afraid, affectionate: and to deal with them, we have to have great understanding, the strength of patience and love. When we lack these, we look to quick and easy remedies and hope for marvellous and automatic results. If we are unaware, mechanical in our attitudes and actions, we fight shy of any demand upon us that is disturbing and that cannot be met by an automatic response, and this is one of our major difficulties in education.
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