Directions: Below, a passage is given with five blanks labelled (A)- (E). Below the passage, five options are given for each blank. Choose the word that fits each blank most appropriately in the context of the passage, and mark the corresponding answer.

Tiny plastic particles washed off products like synthetic clothing and car tyres account for up to a third of the plastic polluting oceans, __ (A) __ eco-systems and human health, a top conservationist body warned. Unlike the __ (B) __ images of country-sized garbage patches floating in the oceans, the micro plastic particles that wash off textiles and roadways leave the waterways looking __ (C) __.

But they constitute a significant part of the “plastic soup” clogging our waters — accounting for between 15% and 31% of the estimated 9.5 million tones of plastic released into the oceans each year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In its report “Primary Micro plastics in the Oceans”, the IUCN found that in many developed countries in North America and Europe, which have __ (D) __ waste management, tiny plastic particles are in fact a bigger source of marine plastic pollution than plastic waste.

In addition to car tyres and synthetic textiles, such particles stem from everything from marine coatings and road markings, to city dust and the micro beads in cosmetics. “Plastic waste is not all there is to ocean plastics,” IUCN chief Inger Andersen said in a statement, insisting that “we must look far beyond waste management if we are to __ (E) __ ocean pollution in its entirety”.

Q:

Which of the following words most appropriately fits the blank labelled (C)?

• 1
  Unmarked
• 2
  Flawless
• 3
  Pristine
• 4
  Unblemished
• 5
  Sterile