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Question

Difficulty: Very hardPrepositions and Prepositional Phrases

Which preposition correctly completes the sentence below?

"The investigative panel noted that the managing director's financial disclosures were completely at variance _____ the bank statements provided by the forensic auditors."

  1. A
    from
  2. withAnswer
  3. C
    to
  4. D
    against

Answer

with
The idiomatic prepositional phrase 'at variance with' is a fixed collocation in English meaning 'in disagreement, conflict, or inconsistency with'. Therefore, the preposition 'with' is the only grammatically accepted choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the core fixed prepositional phrase in the sentence structure.
The target expression is the fixed idiom 'at variance _____'.
English prepositional expressions require specific head nouns and dependent prepositions to function correctly.
2
Select the fixed dependent preposition that grammatically complements 'at variance'.
The correct complement is 'with', yielding 'at variance with'.
Standard English grammar dictates that 'at variance' strictly takes the preposition 'with' to signify discrepancy or contradiction.

Key Concept

Fixed Prepositional Idioms (at variance with)
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Topics

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

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