Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option:
Her husband is ill in _______ hospital, so she has to stay at ______ home to look after _______ children instead of going to work.

• A. _ / _/ the
• B. _ / the / the
• C. the / the / the
• D. no option
  

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

_ / _/ the

Option A: We use the phrase 'in hospital' when the object of the preposition 'in' (person who's in hospital) is a patient. When a person is in the hospital building, we say 'in the hospital'.

Also, we use the phrase 'in hospital' in British English, whereas the Americans say 'in the hospital'. Since we are following British English, the latter phrase is not preferred.

Hence no article is required in the first blank, and option C is wrong.

'Home' when spoken of in general sense, does not use an article. When the home belongs to the person in it, we say 'at home' and not 'at the home'.

In the given sentence, 'home' is spoken of in the general sense and it belongs to the person 'she'. Hence options B and C are wrong.

When the noun is spoken of in general sense, we omit the article. But, when the noun is specific, like 'children' here, we use the definite article 'the'. The noun 'children' is specific as it's made known to the reader that it's the person's children. Hence we use the article 'the', and option A is correct.

Option D is incorrect because the answer lies in A.