Extreme focus on syllabus and studying for tests has become such a dominant concern of Indian student that they close their minds to anything ___________ to the requirements of the exam.
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Answer: B
To find the most appropriate word for the blank, let us analyze the context of the sentence and the grammatical compatibility of the options with the preposition "to":
- Context: The sentence states that Indian students have an "extreme focus on syllabus and studying for tests". Because of this dominant concern, they ignore or close their minds to anything that is not directly required for the exam (i.e., irrelevant or external topics).
- Grammar & Collocation: The blank is followed by the preposition "to". We need a word that naturally collocates with "to" and means "irrelevant" or "unrelated".
- extraneous: Means irrelevant or unrelated to the subject. It perfectly collocates as "extraneous to". This fits both the meaning and grammar.
- outside: While semantically similar, "outside" does not take the preposition "to" in this context (we say "outside the requirements", not "outside to the requirements").
- related / useful: These words contradict the context, as students would actively focus on things that are related or useful to the exam rather than closing their minds to them.
Thus, extraneous is the most appropriate word.
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