Question

In the following passage, some of the words have been left out, each of which is indicated by a number. Find the suitable word from the options given against each number and fill up the blanks with appropriate words to make the paragraph meaningfully complete. That China’s rise would__(26)__ the balance of power in the world, particularly in the region increasingly called the Indo-Pacific, has been obvious__(27)__ quite some time. It has been well understood that China would__(28)__ to counter India’s ambition to become a balancer of power in the region. Still, when China’s power projection__(29)__ a clutch of islands that sheer geography would represent as India’s backyard, it has the same __(30)__ on New Delhi as an unexpected plunge in icy-cold water would have on a morning walker. That bracing __ (31) ___ makes for ready appreciation of the value of India’s deepening relationship with the US. The US sees a partnership with India as a__ (32)__ of ensuring that the Indo-Pacific is “increasingly a place of peace, stability and growing prosperity, rather than one of disorder, conflict and predatory economic policy”, to use Secretary of State Tillerson’s phrase__(33)__ by the Trump administration’s Ambassador to India, Kenneth I Juster, in his article on this page on Thursday. Ambassador Juster makes the__ (34) __ point that stronger economic relations make for a more___ (35) __ partnership.