In the passage on chronic malnutrition, choose the noun that best completes the phrase "micronutrient __________ and overweight" to indicate the lack of essential vitamins and minerals.

Introduction / Context:
This cloze test item occurs in a passage about the "Global Nutrition Report 2016" and India nutritional challenges. The sentence describes different forms of malnutrition: stunting, wasting, micronutrient issues, and overweight. The missing word must logically and collocationally complete "micronutrient __________ and overweight". In public health and nutrition literature, certain technical nouns are preferred when referring to shortages of vitamins and minerals.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The phrase is "micronutrient __________ and overweight". - The options are "scarcities", "lack", "absence", and "deficiencies". - The context is a formal report on nutrition. - The correct word should align with standard technical usage in nutrition science.

Concept / Approach:
In nutrition and medical writing, when referring to health problems caused by insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals, experts typically speak of "micronutrient deficiencies". This term refers to levels that are below what the body needs, not total absence. Expressions like "micronutrient lack" or "micronutrient scarcities" are not standard collocations, and "absence" would suggest zero presence, which is not accurate in most cases. Therefore, we must choose the noun that fits both meaning and established usage, which is "deficiencies".

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Understand that micronutrients are vitamins and minerals required in small quantities for health. Step 2: Remember that the technical phrase used globally in health reports is "micronutrient deficiencies". Step 3: Check option a, "scarcities". While "scarcity" can refer to shortage of food or resources, "micronutrient scarcities" is not a common technical term. Step 4: Check option b, "lack". "Micronutrient lack" is grammatically possible but sounds awkward and is not standard in nutrition discourse. Step 5: Check option c, "absence". "Micronutrient absence" would suggest that micronutrients are totally missing, which is rarely the case in population studies. Step 6: Check option d, "deficiencies". "Micronutrient deficiencies" is a widely used term in global health, matching both meaning and collocation.

Verification / Alternative check:
To verify, imagine the full sentence: "The Global Nutrition Report 2016 once again demonstrates India slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition, manifest in stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight." This sounds exactly like language used in policy documents and academic articles. Replacing "deficiencies" with "lack" or "scarcities" would make the sentence sound less professional and less aligned with typical terminology in nutrition reports.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option a "scarcities" is wrong because it is not the usual noun used with micronutrients in health reports, even though it can refer to shortages generally. Option b "lack" is wrong because while it suggests insufficiency, "micronutrient lack" is not standard collocation in technical literature. Option c "absence" is wrong because it implies total non existence of micronutrients, which is stronger than the intended meaning of inadequate levels.

Common Pitfalls:
Learners often pick words based only on approximate meaning and ignore collocational conventions, but cloze passages are designed to test both. Another pitfall is not recognising domain specific vocabulary; "deficiencies" in health contexts has a very specific, widely accepted meaning. Reading editorials and reports on health and development topics helps candidates internalise such standard phrases and improves their performance on similar questions.

Final Answer:
The correct noun is deficiencies, giving the phrase "micronutrient deficiencies and overweight".