In the following question, you are given a sentence with a blank that must be filled with an appropriate word. Select the correct alternative out of the four options and mark your answer. With a blood test, the physician was able to ___________ the pregnancy of the woman.

Introduction / Context:
This question tests basic vocabulary and collocation in formal English, especially common verbs used with medical tests and diagnoses. The sentence talks about a physician using a blood test to establish whether a woman is pregnant. The task is to select the verb that naturally and correctly follows this context in standard English usage.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Sentence: With a blood test, a physician was able to ___________ the pregnancy of the woman.
• The action describes what a doctor does with the help of a diagnostic test.
• Options: term, confirm, firm, confer.
• We assume standard, formal, modern English usage in a medical or general context.

Concept / Approach:
The usual verb used when a test or examination shows that a condition is true is confirm. We say confirm a diagnosis, confirm a suspicion, or confirm a pregnancy. The idea is that something that was previously uncertain is now supported by evidence. The other options are visually similar words but do not fit grammatically or semantically in this context. The approach is to recall typical collocations used in medical English and eliminate near lookalike but incorrect words.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Focus on the meaning of the sentence: the doctor uses a blood test to establish that a pregnancy exists.Step 2: Recall which verb is conventionally used with pregnancy and diagnosis. We commonly say confirm pregnancy.Step 3: Test option confirm in the blank: was able to confirm the pregnancy. This sounds natural and accurate.Step 4: Test the remaining options. Term, firm and confer do not produce a meaningful or idiomatic sentence in this structure.Step 5: Conclude that confirm is the only suitable verb that matches both meaning and standard usage.

Verification / Alternative check:
We can cross-check by thinking of parallel examples: A scan can confirm a fracture, a test can confirm infection, and an ultrasound can confirm multiple fetuses. In all such cases, confirm is the verb that connects evidence with conclusion. Medical professionals and laypersons alike use confirm in this way. None of the other options is found in such collocations. Therefore, the choice of confirm is strongly supported by real language patterns.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Term: To term something means to call it by a particular name, as in term a policy successful. It does not fit with pregnancy in this structure. Firm: As a verb, firm usually takes the form firm up, meaning to make solid or stable, and is not used with pregnancy. Confer: To confer means to grant or to discuss, often used with honours or degrees, or to confer with someone. It does not express verifying a condition through a test. Thus these options do not convey the intended sense of verifying a pregnancy.

Common Pitfalls:
Students may get confused by the similarity in spelling and sound between confirm, firm, and confer, especially under exam pressure. A common mistake is to choose confer because it looks formal, but it is semantically inappropriate here. Another pitfall is to forget about collocations and to focus only on dictionary meanings. In competitive exams, recognising which verb naturally goes with a noun is as important as knowing individual word meanings.

Final Answer:
The correct verb in context is confirm, as in confirm the pregnancy.