Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
Stress, ____ is a psychological problem, may lead to physical illness.

• A. which
• B. what
• C. that
• D. whose

Answer 1

The correct option is A which

Let’s examine the sentence: “Stress, ____ is a psychological problem, may lead to physical illness.” The sentence requires in the blank a relative pronoun that can be used for stress. This relative pronoun would connect the clause within the commas with the main clause of the sentence. A relative pronoun is used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. The most common relative pronouns are who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, that, etc.

Option D cannot be used here as ‘whose’ is used to represent people and ‘stress’ is a quality.

Option B cannot be used as ‘what’ is not a relative pronoun.

Option C cannot be used here as ‘that’ is used in a restrictive clause. A restrictive clause is that clause, which if removed would affect the meaning of the main clause. The sentence contains a non-restrictive clause between commas. This means that if you remove the clause between the commas from the sentence, the meaning of the sentence is not affected and the reader is able to understand it. Non-restrictive clauses use the relative pronoun, which. Hence, Option A is the correct answer.