A sentence completion question

[williamdenew]

Hi All,

I encountered a sentence completion question. It reads as follows:

Dipping bread into wine may be hard to imagine now but was a pretty common practice in the Middle Ages _____ the poor quality of wine. Putting toast into a jar of wine was believed to rid the wine of the unpleasant acidity and thereby improve the taste.
(A) except
(B) despite
(C) besides
(D) regarding

Which option is grammatical? Thank you for reply.

 

[Tarheel]

Hi All,

I encountered a sentence completion question. It reads as follows:

Dipping bread into wine may be hard to imagine now but was a pretty common practice in the Middle Ages _____ the poor quality of wine. Putting toast into a jar of wine was believed to rid the wine of the unpleasant acidity and thereby improve the taste.
(A) except
(B) despite
(C) besides
(D) regarding

Which option is grammatical?

You have not asked the right question. Ask yourself what choice makes the most sense. Àlso, your teacher wants to see your work, not mine.

 

[williamdenew]

If this post caused some misunderstanding, I'd like to say sorry for that.
In fact, I'm not a student but an instructor of English.
I'd like to know how native speakers of English or those who have good command of English respond to this test item.

Is the option "(B) despite" suitable?

 

[emsr2d2]

B is the only option that leads to a grammatical sentence that makes any sense.

 

[jutfrank]

The question is really a test of meaning rather than grammar, since all four options can be grammatically complemented by a noun phrase.

My opinion as a teacher and test writer is that the context does not frame the sense of despite very reliably, which is obviously the aim here. Still, the other options make no sense whatsoever, so the question is still reasonably valid.

 

[Tarheel]

When I see these things I mentally fill in the blank before seeing the choices. This one was an exception, and I didn't have a specific word in mind. Nevertheless, "despite" is the only one that makes sense. Any of the others would create a sentence that makes no sense.