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Difficulty: MediumPrepositions and Prepositional Phrases

The lead counsel emphasized during the tribunal session that the minister's personal directives were completely conversant ______ the statutory provisions governing public procurement. Which preposition correctly completes the sentence?

  1. withAnswer
  2. B
    about
  3. C
    to
  4. D
    of

Answer

The preposition 'with' correctly completes the sentence because the standard grammatical collocation for the adjective 'conversant' is 'conversant with'.
The adjective 'conversant' requires the preposition 'with' to form the standard prepositional phrase structure 'conversant with', meaning familiar with or knowledgeable about a subject.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the target adjective requiring a dependent preposition in the sentence.
The target adjective is 'conversant'.
Dependent prepositions in English are fixed by standard lexical collocations with specific adjectives.
2
Determine the standard preposition that complements 'conversant'.
'conversant' takes the preposition 'with' (meaning well-informed about or familiar with).
Substituting other prepositions such as 'about', 'to', or 'of' creates non-standard prepositional structures.

Key Concept

Dependent Prepositions and Adjective-Preposition Collocations
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Topics

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

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