Introduction / Context:
This question belongs to the error improvement category and tests your ability to choose the most appropriate verb to match the context. The sentence describes loud shouts of the crowd cheering the home team. The existing verb stuff is slightly informal and does not collocate as naturally with air in standard written English. The goal is to replace it with a verb that expresses that the air is full of cheering sounds.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- Original sentence: Shouts of the crowd cheering the home team now stuff the air.
- Options: fill, occupy, infest, no improvement.
- We want the most suitable and idiomatic verb for a formal exam context.
- No change in meaning is desired, only an improvement in word choice.
Concept / Approach:
The expression used in English for sounds, smells, or emotions being present everywhere in the surroundings is usually fill the air. For example, music filled the air, or the smell of flowers filled the air. The verb stuff tends to be used for physical objects crammed into containers and sounds quite informal. We should therefore look for a more natural collocation. Occupy is used more for time, space, or roles, and infest is used for harmful creatures. Fill is the standard verb used with air in this kind of descriptive sentence.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Identify the intended meaning: the air is full of the crowd's shouts.
Step 2: Replace stuff with fill and read the sentence: Shouts of the crowd cheering the home team now fill the air.
Step 3: Check if this is an established collocation in English. The phrase fill the air is very common and sounds natural.
Step 4: Test occupy: Shouts ... occupy the air. This sounds unnatural because occupy is usually used with positions, seats, land, or time.
Step 5: Test infest: Shouts ... infest the air. Infest suggests vermin or pests invading, which is negative and does not suit cheering shouts.
Step 6: Test no improvement. Since stuff is not the best choice in formal English, no improvement is not correct.
Verification / Alternative check:
Compare other typical sentences: Perfume filled the air, Laughter filled the air, and The sound of fireworks filled the night air. All these show that fill is the normal and elegant verb to describe something being present everywhere in the air. Using stuff would make the sentence sound informal and less polished, which is not appropriate for a standard English paper. Therefore fill is clearly the best improvement.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
- occupy: Used for occupying a seat, a room, or time, not for sounds filling the air.
- infest: Associated with animals or insects invading a place, and has a strong negative tone. It is not used with shouts in this way.
- no improvement: Would accept stuff, but that verb is not the most accurate or natural in this context.
Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes select no improvement because the original sentence is understandable. However, improvement questions often replace a weaker but understandable word with a stronger, more idiomatic one. Another pitfall is to choose a fancy or rare word like infest simply because it looks impressive, but vocabulary must always match context and tone. Focus on common collocations such as fill the air when dealing with descriptive language.
Final Answer:
The correct improvement is
fill, giving: Shouts of the crowd cheering the home team now fill the air.
Discussion & Comments