“…[it] became a ______ for me.” Why is "gift" the right answer?

Question

This is a cloze test; my focus is on question 28.

People always tell me I was brave to apply to medical school in my 30s. But for me, the bravest thing was to 21 from being a doctor 10 years later.

I’d always wanted to study medicine to help release the world from sufferings but, believing I was not bright enough, I left school at 15 and didn’t return to education until my 30s. 22 the fact that the commute was tough and the money was 23, I kept going this time. I dreamed of becoming a doctor who made a(n) 24.

I spent five years at medical school learning how to fix things, but after graduation, when I worked in a hospital, I soon discovered there were many things in life I was unable to 25. It wasn’t the workload I struggled with, though. What I found really 26 was the emotional load. As a doctor, I knew I would 27 upsetting things. I knew I would watch people die and I knew I would see the most awful things. However, being always present at all these moments became a 28 for me.

I knew I needed a solution to it, and I finally 29 writing. Writing allowed me an escape, a door into another world, and it also helped to 30 my anxieties. Writing, something I had started as a form of treatment, now gave me success, an exit card, and a chance of self-protection. 31 I was wondering whether I was a doctor or a writer. Having thought thick and thin, I 32 my job and took the writing. It was not a decision I made 33. I knew if I didn’t put myself first, I would eventually disappear.

I still work on the wards now but as a(an) 34. There are times when you need to focus on yourself. If you have walked so far down a rough road, you may find it 35 to head back because walking away is often the safest route of all.

21. A. leave B. suffer C. hide D. lean

22. A. For B. With C. Given D. Despite

23. A. sufficient B. tight C. worthless D. missing

24. A. wish B. decision C. difference D. application

25. A. handle B. recognize C. choose D. decide

26. A amazing B. essential C. impossible D. significant

27. A. cause B. abandon C. witness D. fix

28. A. gift B. practice C. burden D. luck

29. A. turned to B. gave up C. run for D. figured out

30. A. wipe out B. find out C. hand out D. pick out

31. A. Recently B. Originally C. Gradually D. Apparently

32. A. quitted B. regained C. continued D. led

33. A. seriously B. lightly C. aimlessly D. sadly

34. A. expert B. leader C. doctor D. volunteer

35. A. easy B. fortunate C. hard D. wise

The standard answer of Question 28 is "gift", but I chose "burden". Could you please tell me which one is the right answer?

Answer 1

Presumably the test suggests it is a "gift" because it provided the narrator with something to write about, which he managed to turn into a new career.

Writing, something I had started as a form of treatment, now gave me success

I.e. the success is the gift. The narrator would not have started writing without the bad experience.

That is the only way to make sense of the standard answer. I would however agree that the way the text is structured does not really support this, and you can only apply this as an explanation after the fact.

FWIW, in the original text it's actually "burden". The given text is an edited version of Joanna Cannon's article in the Guardian from 2022. The original passage reads

To be present at these vulnerable moments in a stranger’s life is a privilege, but it also becomes a burden if, like me, you’re unable to let those moments go.

When I became a doctor, I thought I could cope with the pain and death I would see. I was wrong.

So yes, the test got it wrong.

Answer 2

I agree with you that burden makes more sense.

The writer says that they knew they would see distressing things as a doctor - they were prepared for it - however, it was more of a problem than they anticipated. The next paragraph starts I knew I needed a solution (to that problem).

Answer 3

Burden was the right answer.

In the context, as a native english speaker, I'd have chosen 'burden' as well.

I knew I would watch people die and I knew I would see the most awful things. However, being always present at all these moments became a _____ for me.

I knew I needed a solution to it... Writing allowed me an escape... something I had started as a form of treatment...

The following paragraph is what would clue me in that the blank should be a negative. The "it" there refers back to the blanked out word, and you don't need a solution, escape, and treatment for a gift. You need a them for a burden.

The way I read this is that the doctor is saying "I knew this was going to be tough job when I took it, but even knowing that, the job was wearing me down emotionally, so I started writing as a way to process those feelings."

The use of 'gift' here is not only a poor match for the next paragraph, but feels like a bad pun to me. 'Present' can mean 'in that location' but it can also mean 'a gift', so juxtaposing those words makes it sound like a joke that's quite out of place.

This is a bad test.

That said, assuming this is copied perfectly, this piece of text is full of errors. For example:

...release the world from sufferings but, believing I was not bright enough...

It should say "release the world from suffering" (suffering is a state -- or possibly a mass noun -- not a plural), and the comma should go before the "but" rather than after it.

Similarly, the prase "Having thought thick and thin" is utterly incoherent. The idiom "through thick and thin" means "in good times and bad times" and doesn't make any sense in this context, where the writer apparently meant to say "having thought about it a lot".

I additionally note that the only word that #32 could be that makes sense would be "I quit my job", but the provided word is "quitted", which is not used in modern english.

The poor writing on display here makes me doubt the capabilities of whoever is presenting this as a test. Anyone can make a typo, but this seems like a lot of errors in a short space for what is supposed to be a language test.

Answer 4

I agree with Kate Bunting's answer. In addition, "for" is not usually used as the preposition after "gift" -- we would normally say "a gift to me."

However, the usual preposition used with "burden" is "on". In fact, none of the choices are usually followed by "for".

Mistakes like these are not uncommon in casual language, and will normally be ignored, but they suggest that the quiz was not written by a very good English speaker.

Answer 5

Analysis of possible answers

As a doctor, I knew I would witness upsetting things. I knew I would watch people die and I knew I would see the most awful things. However, being always present at all these moments became a 28 for me.

The passage context is someone who applied to medical school in their 30s, overcame significant challenges, and began a medical career 5 years later. Due to the emotional load they eventually made a difficult choice to leave for their well-being and to pursue writing as a therapeutic escape.

#28, grammar: the unknown word is a noun for the following reasons.

1. The preceding word a is an article that typically precedes a singular, countable noun. This indicates that the following word must be a noun.
2. The preceding verb became links the subject to the noun that describes the emotional load — it generally connects to a noun or adjective that describes or identifies the subject.
3. The sentence structure follows a common pattern of subject + linking verb + noun.

#28, possible choices: (A) gift (B) practice (C) burden (D) luck

• Gift implies something positive and beneficial, which doesn’t align with the context of the negative emotional impact described. The author is talking about a heavy emotional load, not something positive. If taken out of context, gift could fit.

• Practice is doing something repeatedly to improve skill, which doesn’t fit the context of emotional strain, versus a routine activity.

• Burden accurately describes the heavy emotional load the author is carrying from constantly witnessing upsetting events, the toll of the experience.

• Luck refers to chance or good fortune, which doesn’t make sense in the negative context. Additionally, luck is a mass noun, meaning it doesn’t typically take an article (a or an) before it — the sentence structure requires a countable noun, which luck is not.

However, the word however (which normally introduces a contrast or contradiction) is in conflict with the overall context and the author likely meant moreover. In such cases of conflict the overall context is generally followed as the author is more likely to be correct in the bulk of the text versus a single instance.

It could be argued that gift is correct in that the negative emotional load pushed the author to become a writer, however, as has been mentioned by @KateBunting, the preposition for is not used with gift in this manner. You can choose a gift for someone, but that is not in the context, rather, giving a gift to someone is. For may be an incorrect word choice by the author, but I would expect an author to be more emphatic about it being a gift, or to say that they eventually saw it as a gift (as it seems obvious to me that they did not consider it a gift at the time).

Thus Burden is the correct choice and the test is wrong (though the text is also wrong, context dictates that the test is more wrong).

Answer 6

I don't agree with the other answers. The text describes some negative things and then follows with "however" meaning that the word should be positive.

People say a gift doesn't need a solution but it seems to me that the writer is explaining that the negative things needed a solution and then turning to writing was the gift.

Answer 7

The standard answer gift (which my original answer supported) provided by the examiner is incorrect, as explained in the answers and comments from our various contributors here.

Edit (to compare the general interpretation and my previous one)

I knew I would see the most awful things. However, being always present at all these moments became a 28 for me.

I knew I needed a solution to it, and I finally 29 writing. Writing allowed me an escape, a door into another world, and it also helped to 30 my anxieties. Writing, something I had started as a form of treatment, now gave me success, an exit card ...

My summary of the general interpretation from the other answers and the comments is that the example means despite knowing, despite being armed with knowledge that I would see awful things, these moments still burdened me. In the paragraph following that, needed a solution further supports this interpretation.

My original interpretation was that despite seeing the awful things, I considered these moments gifts as they spurred me on to go into writing, which subsequently gave me success; these moments were a blessing in disguise. Obviously, from the votes and comments, this is considered incorrect.