Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: enough
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This cloze test question continues the passage about primary and district-level mental health services. The sentence refers to general practitioners who may not feel fully prepared by their training. The blank requires a degree word that completes the phrase not confident ________ with their training in a natural and grammatically correct way. Understanding collocations with confident is key here.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
In English, the common phrase is confident enough when we want to indicate that a person has sufficient confidence to perform a task. The negative form not confident enough means their confidence is insufficient. Lot, very, and much do not fit directly after confident without additional words. For example, we say very confident, but not not confident very with their training. So, enough is the only word that correctly completes this pattern.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Focus on the collocation not confident ________ with their training.
Step 2: Recall that we usually say confident enough to do something, meaning sufficiently confident.
Step 3: Substitute option b, enough: not confident enough with their training. This gives the sense that their training does not give them sufficient confidence.
Step 4: Test option a, lot: not confident lot with their training is ungrammatical and incorrect.
Step 5: Test option c, very: not confident very with their training is also ungrammatical; very should come before confident, not after it.
Step 6: Test option d, much: not confident much with their training sounds awkward and unidiomatic.
Step 7: Conclude that enough is the only suitable choice.
Verification / Alternative check:
Consider similar examples: She is not confident enough in her English to give a speech; They are not confident enough with the new software to use it independently. These sentences match the same pattern: not confident enough with / in something. The word enough follows confident and precedes the prepositional phrase. Replacing enough with any of the other options makes the sentence sound incorrect or incomplete.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Lot is wrong because it would require a structure like a lot or a lot of, not simply lot after confident. Very is wrong because it is an adverb that normally goes before an adjective (very confident), not after it. Much is wrong because we use much with verbs (do not like it much) or with uncountable nouns, but not directly after confident in this pattern. None of these fit the collocation not confident enough.
Common Pitfalls:
A typical mistake is to see very and think of common phrases like very confident, without noticing the position of the blank. Another error is to overlook the preposition with their training which indicates that we are talking about sufficient confidence in relation to a skill set. Remember that enough commonly follows adjectives when we talk about sufficiency: good enough, strong enough, confident enough. Recognising this pattern makes the correct answer clear.
Final Answer:
The correct word for the blank is enough, giving: many of them are not confident enough with their training to detect, diagnose and manage mental illnesses.
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