SSC Stenographer 2026 PYQ — Question 152

In the following question, some of the words in the passage have been left out. Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer to each question out of the four alternatives and fill in the blanks.
Scribes were highly respected, elite intellectuals in ancient Egypt who served as the (1)_____ of the entire civilisation's administration. In a society where the vast majority of people could not read or write, scribes spent years in specialised temple schools mastering hieroglyphs—the complex picture-writing system—and hieratic script, a quicker cursive form used for daily business. It is because of their rare and (2)_____ skills that the scribes held immense social power and were exempt from paying taxes, performing forced labour, or serving in the military. Their daily tasks included recording grain harvests, calculating taxes, writing legal documents, and (3)_____ military victories. They also copied sacred religious spells onto papyrus rolls, which were buried inside tombs to guide the dead. Scribes used wooden (4)_____ holding black and red ink cakes, writing with brushes made from reeds. Ultimately, they were the keepers of history; without their (5)_____ record-keeping, much of our knowledge about ancient Egypt would be entirely lost.
What should come in blank 2?