Select the correct alternative to fill in the blank with the correct preposition in the following sentence.
______ hearing the news, Mrs. White fell to the ground.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Correct Answer
On
Explanation
The preposition "On" followed by a gerund ("hearing") is used to mean "immediately after" or "as a result of" an event. In this sentence, it indicates that Mrs. White fell to the ground the exact moment she heard the news. Both "On hearing" and "Upon hearing" are standard idioms used to express an immediate reaction to an event.
The other options are incorrect because they do not match this temporal meaning. Using "In hearing," "Under hearing," or "For hearing" breaks standard grammatical rules and fails to convey that one action happened immediately after the other.
Key Points
When a sentence describes a sudden, immediate reaction to an event using an "-ing" verb, the correct preposition to introduce the clause is almost always "on" or "upon". turn off any options that imply physical locations or duration, like "under" or "in".