Fill in the blank!

[Hnin Pa Pa Aung]

Hi,all ( I am just a learner ).
I am a little bit confused among some vocabularies and their usage in the blanks below( this questions are from Reading Comprehension ):

14) accepting or accepted or accept or acceptance
15) literate or literal or literally or literary
Soyinka's 14) __________ speech criticised apartheid and the politics of racial segregation imposed on the population by the Nationalist South African government. That year brought him another 15) __________ award - the Agip Prize for Literature - and he was awarded a Nigerian national decoration: Commander of the Federal Republic.

Thanks,
HPPA

[2006]

Hi,all ( I am just a learner ).
I am a little bit confused among some vocabularies and their usage in the blanks below( this questions are from Reading Comprehension ):

14) accepting or accepted or accept or acceptance
15) literate or literal or literally or literary
Soyinka's 14) __________ speech criticised apartheid and the politics of racial segregation imposed on the population by the Nationalist South African government. That year brought him another 15) __________ award - the Agip Prize for Literature - and he was awarded a Nigerian national decoration: Commander of the Federal Republic.

Thanks,
HPPA

Hi and Welcome!
You should make an attempt to answer first. Focus on whether the blank needs a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. Check with your dictionary.

[Soup]

Hi Hnin Pa Pa Aung

Choice 14) requires an adjective. So let's look at how to find it.

First, verbs can't function as adjectives, so accept cannot be a possible choice:

• accepting
• accepted
• accept
• acceptance

Second, suffixes can be added to verbs to make adjectives. Add -ing, for example, and you get what's called a present participle, like accepting. Add -ed, and you get a past participle, like accepted.

Third, the ending tells a lot about what the word means. For example, the -ing in an accepting speech signals the present, and can be rephrased as a speech that is accepting. Likewise, the -ed in an accepted speech signals the past and can be rephrased as a speech that has been accepted.

Fourth, there are other suffixes besides -ing and -ed that you can add to a verb to make another word, such as, for example the suffix -ance in acceptance, the meaning of which can be found here.

Fifth, nouns can function as adjectives. Check the dictionary listed above to see if acceptance is one such noun.


Choice 15) also requires an adjective, _____ award related to Literature:

• literate = means the ability to read and write, well-read
• literal = means a word's true meaning
• literally = adverb
• literary= means books, writing