Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.

The writer declares that __________ children of their childhood is a criminal act.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CHSL 2021 (Held On : 24 May 2022 Shift 3)

Answer 1

The correct answer is 'Robbing'.

Key Points

The context tells us that the author claims that depriving kids of their youth is wrong.
In this context, the word that must fit the blank should be a gerund.
A gerund is a part of speech that acts as a noun, but has a 'V+ ing' form.
- For example: He said that smoking is bad for health. (Here, 'smoking' is a gerund)
Similarly, in this context, 'smoking' must fit the blank as it is used after 'that' (which introduces a restrictive clause).

Therefore, the correct answer is 'The writer declares that robbing children of their childhood is a criminal act'.

Additional Information

Let us understand the participles:
- Participles are made of the verb which works as an adjective. Participles qualify the noun and pronoun.
  - Present Participle - V⁴ (V¹+ing)
  - Past Participle - V³
  - Perfect Participle - having + V³