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Question

Difficulty: MediumPrepositions and Prepositional Phrases

Supply the appropriate preposition to complete the sentence accurately.

Answer:Despite its elaborate structure and lengthy introduction, the researcher's final report was completely bereft 【of】 verifiable empirical evidence.

Answer

of
The adjective 'bereft' takes the fixed dependent preposition 'of' when indicating that something is entirely lacking or deprived of a quality.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the adjective in the sentence requiring a dependent preposition.
The adjective 'bereft' requires a specific preposition to form a standard grammatical collocation meaning 'deprived of' or 'lacking'.
In standard English grammar and JAMB UTME usage, 'bereft' takes the fixed preposition 'of'.
2
Complete the prepositional phrase.
'bereft of' correctly completes the phrase in this context.
Combining 'bereft' with any other preposition creates an ungrammatical construction.

Key Concept

Dependent Prepositions with Adjectives
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Topics

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

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