CLOZE COMPREHENSION - I. In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.
Passage: The question whether war is ever justified, and if so under what circumstances, is one which has been forcing itself __(36)__ the attention of all thoughtful men. On this question I find myself in the somewhat __(37)__ position of holding that no single one of the combatants is justified in the present war, while not taking the extreme Tolstoyan view that war is under all circumstances a __(38)__. Opinions on such a subject as war are the outcome of __(39)__ rather than of thought: given a man's emotional temperament, his convictions, __(40)__ on war in general, and on any particular war which may occur during his lifetime, can be __(41)__ with tolerable certainty. The arguments used will be mere reinforcements to convictions otherwise reached. The fundamental facts in this as in all ethical __(42)__ are feelings; all that thought can do is to clarify and systematize the expression of those feelings, and it is such clarifying and systematizing of my own feelings that I wish to __(43)__ in the present article. In fact, the question of rights and wrongs of a particular war is generally __(44)__ from a juridical or quasi-juridical __(45)__.
Blank (36): The question whether war is ever justified ... has been forcing itself __(36)__ the attention of all thoughtful men.
- Aupon
- Bon
- Cat
- Dover
Explanation
The passage is Bertrand Russell's "The Ethics of War", where the question "has been forcing itself upon the attention of all thoughtful men". The idiom is "force itself upon one's attention", and the formal "upon" suits Russell's register ("on" is the everyday variant). "At" and "over" do not collocate with "forcing itself ... the attention". Hence (A).