Question

Fill in the blank with the appropriate verb.
Rekha has been learning swimming for years. She _ _ _ _ _ _ swim very well now.
A. could
B. can
C. might
D. have to

Answer 1

Hint: In linguistics and philosophy, the phenomenon by which a language can be used to discuss possible situations is known as modality. For instance, a modal expression (indicating modality) may convey that something is likely, desirable, or permissible. Therefore, modals are those words which can be used to indicate modality, like: likelihood, ability, permission, request, capacity, suggestions, order, obligation or advice. They can be noticed in sentences where they are accompanying the base form of another verb having content that is relating to meaning in language.

Complete answer:
1. Here we are going to check each option one by one so that we can detect the correct option containing the proper form of the verb.
2. If we look at the second option, ‘could’, we can see that it is expressing the verb in the past form. Also, it makes the sentence grammatically incorrect.
3. ‘Can’ is used with the intention of expressing ability. If it is used in the sentence, “Rekha has been learning swimming for years. She can swim very well now.”, the meaning of the sentence will be preserved as well as will be clearly understood. The fact that the subject can now swim very well is clearly propagated.
4. Both option C, ‘might’ and option D, ‘have’ cannot be used in this sentence because they won’t fit in correctly (will oppose the rules of grammar).

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’

Note: In this question, we saw that some of the modals that have been given to us are similar in meanings whereas some are not. We understood the meaning and the usage of each word. This enabled us to pick the correct answer from them. One should note that in the first sentence, it is set in present perfect continuous tense. In this context, we can easily assume that the succeeding sentence will be set in simple present.