Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word:
A number of advances in medicine would have been ___________ sooner if free enquiry had been common and orthodox thinking habits had been rare.

• A. persisted
• B. inducted
• C. secured
• D. achieved
• E. propagated

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

achieved

Option D: 'Achieved' means 'successfully brought about or reached by effort or skill'.

This word completes the sentence in meaning: 'the advances in medicine would have been successfully brought about sooner if free enquiry had been common and orthodox thinking habits had been rare'.

Hence option D is correct.

Option A: 'Persisted' means 'continued in an opinion or course of action despite difficulty or opposition'.

Option B: 'Inducted' means 'admitted formally to a post or organisation'.

Option C: 'Secured' means 'fixed or attached firmly so that it cannot be moved or lost'.

Option E: 'Propagated' means 'spread and promoted widely'.

These words are not the most suitable to the sentence in meaning and relevance.

Hence options A, B, C and E are incorrect.