“Even though there is a vast scope for its ________, tourism has remained a/an _________ area.”
The words that best fill the blanks in the above sentence are
improvement, neglected
rejection, approved
fame, glum
interest, disinterested
ANSWER
(A) improvement, neglected: \"Even though there is a vast scope for its improvement, tourism has remained a neglected area.\"
Official answer: ASource: Official answer key, GATE 2018 EC (IIT Guwahati)
Signal word: "Even though" introduces a concession, so the second clause must go against what the first clause leads you to expect. A "vast scope" means big potential, so the second blank has to say that tourism has not lived up to that potential.
Collocation: "scope for X" means room or potential for X, and X is normally something that could usefully happen, such as development, growth or improvement. So the first blank needs a noun naming something good that could happen to tourism.
(A) improvement, neglected: "vast scope for its improvement" is natural English, and "has remained a neglected area" goes against that potential. The room to improve exists, but no one has acted on it, which is exactly the contrast "Even though" needs. "a/an" becomes "a" before "neglected". Both blanks work.
(B) rejection, approved: the two words are opposites, so the sentence has the shape of a contrast, but the content does not hold up. "Vast scope for its rejection" treats tourism as a proposal waiting to be turned down, which is not a sensible potential to talk about, and "an approved area" is not a natural way to describe a sector. B is rejected because the words do not fit the sentence, not because the contrast is missing.
(C) fame, glum: "glum" means gloomy or dejected. It describes a person's mood and cannot describe an area of activity such as tourism. "Scope for its fame" is also unidiomatic. C fails.
(D) interest, disinterested: "disinterested" strictly means impartial or unbiased ("lacking interest" is "uninterested"). Either way, the word describes a person's attitude, not an area. "Scope for its interest" is also unidiomatic. D fails on both blanks.
Only (A) gets a natural collocation in the first blank and a real contrast in the second, so the answer is (A).
KEY IDEA
\"Even though\" signals a concession: the second clause must go against what the first leads you to expect. \"Scope for X\" means potential for something beneficial (improvement), and a potential nobody has acted on is \"neglected\". Also check that each word fits its noun: an area can be neglected, but it cannot be glum or disinterested, because those words describe people.
WATCH OUT FOR
Picking (B) because \"rejection\" and \"approved\" are opposites and seem to fit the \"Even though\" contrast. Opposites alone are not enough: each word must also make sense in its own blank, and \"scope for its rejection\" and \"an approved area\" do not. A second trap is (D): matching \"interest\" with \"disinterested\" looks neat, but \"disinterested\" means impartial and describes people, not areas.
From the GATE 2018 EC paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 32 Grammar & vocabulary questions, with notes
