Double Fillers

While preparing for your banking competitive exams and even for your day-to-day life, mastering the English language has huge benefits. One such important factor in this process is improving and honing your vocabulary. Even for solving tricky double fillers questions this is the key. Let us take a look.

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Double Fillers

Fillers are nothing but sentence fillers, an exercise in completing the sentence correctly. These fillers and double fillers test the student’s vocabulary and grasp of the English language. This is done to ensure that the candidates have a basic knowledge of the language and its grammatical syntax.

Single filers are when only one word or phrase is needed to complete the sentence. Double fillers, as the name suggests, require two words to logically complete the sentence.

The candidate must choose the most appropriate option from the list of options given. Considering that there are two important words/phrases missing, this exercise has a higher level of difficulty and complexity.

There are certain pointers you can keep in mind while answering these tricky double fillers questions. Let us take a look at a few of them,

1] Read the Options Last

This is one of the most important pointers for solving double fillers questions. Students in their hurry and impatience tend to read the options/choices of the question before the question itself. This is a mistake.

It will only confuse the students more. Instead, very carefully read the sentence first. Try and understand what the author wishes to relay. Take cues from the grammar of the sentence. Only then analyze your choices.

2] Take Clues from the Grammar

Sometimes, you will be able to take clues from the sentence and its grammatical formation or syntax. For example, if the blank is preceded with an ‘an’ instead of an ‘a’, this is a clue that the word begins with a vowel.

3] Use Connotation

When we use words in a sentence we must be mindful of their connotation. Other than the definition of the word, they also invoke a certain feeling or an idea which can be positive, negative or neutral. So in case of questions with double fillers, look out for certain words that suggest any such idea.

For example, the word “childish” has a negative connotation. However, if the word used is “youthful’ then the suggested connotation is positive.

4] Look out for Indicators

Sometimes there are certain words/phrases that indicate where the sentence is headed, i.e. what the author wishes to convey. Some common ones to keep in mind are,

• Contrast Indicators: They help contrast or differentiate things. So we look for an option that has an opposite meaning than the one used in the sentence. Some common examples are but, although, yet, while, rather, though, etc.
• Support Indicators: Words that continue the same line of thought, i.e. support what is said. Examples: and, also, likewise, similarly, etc.
• Cause and Effect Indicators: These words indicate how one thing led to the other, i.e. the cause and subsequent effect of something. Examples are because, for, therefore, consequently, etc

 Question on Double Fillers

Q: The student was fairly _____ of passing, yet previous experiences with this teacher left him _____.

1. uncertain, confused
2. certain, confident
3. confident, uncertain
4. confident, certain

Ans: Note the word “yet” in the sentence. This is a contrast indicator. So the words but be opposite of each other, which leaves us with option C.