What should come in blank (3) ?

Passage

PASSAGE (Q101–Q105): In the following question, some of the words in the passage have been left out. Read the passage carefully and choose the correct word for each blank, out of the four alternatives and fill in the blanks.

After falling consistently (1) the U.S. dollar for a major part of the year, the rupee has (2) somewhat over the last few weeks. It has risen by almost 5% from its lowest levels (3) in October. Even with this recent improvement, the rupee is still down about 11% since the start of the year. The rupee’s performance has been closely (4) to global crude oil prices. This makes sense, as imported oil accounts for about 80% of India’s total demand. The value of the rupee dropped when oil prices climbed earlier this year, a trend that lasted until early October. Since then, as global crude prices have fallen, the rupee has (5) against the dollar.

Question

What should come in blank (3) ?

1. A. reached (Correct answer)
2. B. behind
3. C. admire
4. D. render

Correct Answer

Option A — reached

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is reached.

Key Points

• The phrase describes the lowest levels the rupee reached in October — the natural verb for arriving at a value or extreme.
• "Levels reached in October" is a standard past-participle construction modifying *levels*.
• The alternatives do not work: *behind* is a preposition, *admire* is unrelated, and *render* means to provide or cause to become.

Additional Information

• Collocations with reach: reach a level, reach a peak, reach a low, reach an agreement, reach a conclusion.
• The construction here is a reduced relative clause — "levels [that were] reached in October" — where the relative pronoun and auxiliary are omitted.
• In cloze questions, eliminate options by part of speech first; here only two of the four are verbs at all, which halves the field immediately.
• The time marker "in October" signals a completed past event, confirming a past participle rather than a present form.