Question

Fill in the blank with a suitable preposition.
The students who reported to class _______ their notebooks were sent out.

• A. on
• B. within
• C. without
• D. by

Answer 1

The correct option is C without

The preposition ‘without’ means in the absence of someone/something. In the given sentence the students might get punished if they fail to bring their notebooks. Hence ‘without’ is the suitable answer, so option C is correct. On the other hand prepositions of place such as ‘on’ and ‘within’ are unsuitable here since the noun that follows the blank is not a place. Thus options A and B are incorrect. Similarly ‘their notebooks’ are not the agents that perform an action, hence ‘by’ would be unsuitable so option D is incorrect.