So far, you’ve been using context in the passage to fill in blanks. But sometimes there isn’t enough context to tell you the answer. These are called puzzle questions, and you solve them using logic.
Imagine I tell you that teams A and B played a game of football. A simple practice sentence might be:
Team A ______ the game and team B ______ the game.
This sentence doesn’t give you enough context to know who won or lost. In a puzzle question, the answer becomes clear because of the choices you’re given.
For example, suppose you can only choose from these options:
Team A (1) the game and team B (2) the game.
(1): won, postponed, arranged
(2): tied, lost, won
Even without extra context, only one pair of words fits logically.
Can you determine the only logical match?
If you chose won for (1) and lost for (2), that’s the only fully logical match.
For puzzle questions, a reliable strategy is to plug in the choices and test them. Mix and match options until you find the combination that’s both logical and natural.