Direction: Read the given passage and choose the correct answers for the questions given below. A region in Australia’s southeast was cloaked in sheets of web after floodwaters forced thousands of spiders to find higher ground. Residents in Victoria’s Gippsland region witnessed the ________ 1 ________ after intense rain and heavy flooding rocked the area last week, damaging dozens of homes and leaving two people dead.The waterlogged soil sent thousands, possibly millions of spiders ________ 2 ________ for refuge on plants, signs and anything else above ground. “We are constantly surrounded by spiders, but we don’t usually see them. They are hiding in the leaf litter and in the soil,” Lizzy Lowe, a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University, wrote in an explainer about the phenomenon. “When these flood events happen, they need to ________ 3 ________ quickly up out of holes they live in underground. They come out en masse and use their silk to help them do that.” Baby spiders use the same technique of letting out strands of their silk, known as ballooning, to catch the wind and disperse after emerging from egg sacs. Simultaneous ballooning by thousands of spiders results in the blanket silk effect, called gossamer. Ken Walker, a senior curator of entomology at the Melbourne Museum, told the media group ‘The Guardian’ that the gossamer effect ________ 4 ________ semi-regularly in Victoria during the wet season in the winter. “There has been a massive flooding event pretty quickly, so they are using the ballooning not to escape for hundreds of kilometres but to almost throw up a lasso on top of the vegetation. It ________ 5 ________ on to the tops of the vegetation because it is lighter than air, and then they quickly climb up.” A council member, Carolyn Crossley, shared a video of the effect and asked for support for the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund, which is providing assistance to areas hit hard by the floods. Locals were advised to leave the spiders alone. The webbing will ________ 6 ________ on its own, and the arachnids will likely soon disperse and head back to their underground homes, Walker said.
Choose the correct word to fill the 6 th blank.
break up
Understanding the Passage: The Fate of Spider Webbing After a Flood
The passage describes a fascinating natural phenomenon in Victoria, Australia, where floodwaters forced spiders to seek higher ground using their silk, creating massive sheets of webbing known as gossamer. The question asks us to determine the correct word for the sixth blank, which describes what happens to this webbing over time.
Let's look at the sentence containing the blank:
"The webbing will ________ 6 ________ on its own, and the arachnids will likely soon disperse and head back to their underground homes, Walker said."
The sentence tells us two things: the webbing will do something "on its own," and the spiders will disperse and go back underground. This implies that the webbing is temporary and will eventually disappear or lose its structure.
Analyzing the Options
We need to choose the word that best fits this context:
- unify: This means to bring together or combine into a single entity. This is the opposite of what would happen to a large, temporary sheet of webbing; it would not unify further.
- act: This is a very general word. While the webbing certainly exists and performs a temporary function (supporting the spiders), "act on its own" doesn't specifically describe its physical state or eventual disappearance.
- amalgamate: This means to combine or unite to form one large structure. Similar to 'unify', this suggests the webbing would become more solid or combined, which is not consistent with it eventually disappearing.
- break up: This means to separate into pieces, disintegrate, or cease to be a unified whole. This fits perfectly with the idea that the temporary webbing, exposed to elements and no longer needed by the spiders who have dispersed, would naturally disintegrate or fall apart over time.
- pervade: This means to spread throughout or be present throughout something. The webbing has already pervaded the area by covering surfaces. This word doesn't describe what happens to the webbing afterwards.
Based on the context and the meaning of the words, "break up" is the most appropriate choice. It describes the natural process of the gossamer webbing disintegrating once the spiders no longer need it and environmental factors affect it.
Important Questions from Cloze Test
What would come in blank space (1)?
What would come in blank space (2)?
What would come in blank space (3)?
What would come in blank space (4)?
What would come in blank space (5)?
