Question:medium

Choose the appropriate words to fill in the blanks.

It is not ______ democratic that the parliament should be ______ on issues and resort to passing ______ rather than have an open debate on the floor of the house.

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Separate the two sound-alike pairs first: quite and quiet by grammar, and ordinance and ordnance by meaning.
Updated On: Jul 10, 2026
  • quite, quite, ordinances
  • quite, quiet, ordnances
  • quiet, quite, ordnances
  • quite, quiet, ordinances
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The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

This sentence is built entirely around two pairs of similar-sounding words: quite and quiet, and ordinance and ordnance. Getting the grammar of each blank right settles the whole question.

  1. Option 1 (quite, quite, ordinances): The second blank needs an adjective describing parliament staying silent on issues, but "quite" is a degree adverb and cannot mean silent, so this option fails at the second blank.
  2. Option 2 (quite, quiet, ordnances): The first two blanks are right, but the third blank should be about a law parliament passes, not "ordnances" (military weapons), so this option fails at the last blank.
  3. Option 3 (quiet, quite, ordnances): This option swaps the first two words the wrong way round: "It is not quiet democratic" makes no sense, since "quiet" cannot modify "democratic" the way a degree word does. It also repeats the "ordnances" mistake.
  4. Option 4, originally D (quite, quiet, ordinances): "Not quite democratic" correctly uses "quite" as a degree word, "quiet on issues" correctly uses "quiet" to mean silent, and "passing ordinances" correctly uses the law-and-decree sense of the word. All three blanks check out together.

Reading the full sentence confirms it: "It is not quite democratic that the parliament should be quiet on issues and resort to passing ordinances rather than have an open debate on the floor of the house." The meaning now makes complete sense: a parliament that stays silent and rules by decree instead of debating is acting in a way that is not fully democratic.

Let's summarize:

  • Quite is a degree word ("not quite right"); quiet is an adjective for silence.
  • Ordinance is a law or decree; ordnance is military weaponry, an unrelated word despite the similar spelling.

So the sentence needs quite, quiet, ordinances, which is option 4 (originally D).

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