Which of the following pairs of homophones can be used to fill in the blanks most suitably?
His years of effort came to ______ when the invention was rejected, but he reminded himself that failure does ______ define a person.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The first blank should be filled with 'naught', which means nothing or zero. The phrase 'came to naught' is an idiom meaning to fail or amount to nothing.
The second blank should be filled with 'not', which is used to form a negative statement. The sentence 'failure does not define a person' means that a person should not be judged solely by their failures.