Direction: Given below is a passage divided into XIV segments. Read the passage and answer the question that follow.
The UK is the world’s fifth largest economy, it contains many areas of immense wealth, its capital is a leading centre of global finance, its entrepreneurs are innovation and agile, and despite the current political turmoil, it has a system of government that rightly remains the envy of much of the world. (I) It thus seems patently unjust and __(A)__ to British values that so many people
are living in poverty. (II) This is obvious (1) to anyone who opens their eyes to see the deep (2) growth in foodbanks and the queues waiting outside them, the people sleeping rough in the streets, the growth of homelessness, the sense of immense (3) despair that leads even the Government to appoint a Minister for suicide prevention (4) and civil society to report on levels of
loneliness and isolation. (III) And local __(B)__, especially in England, which perform vital roles in providing a real social safety net have been gutted by a series of government policies. (IV) Libraries have closed in record numbers, community and youth centres have been shrunk and are underfunded, public spaces and buildings including parks and recreation centres have been sold off.
(V) While the labour and housing markets provide the crucial __(C)__, the focus of this report is on the contribution made by social
security and related policies. (VI) The results? 14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are __(D)__. (VII) The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a 7% rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2022, and various __(E)__(resources) predict child poverty rates of as high as 40%. (VIII) For almost one in every two children to be poor in the twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one. (IX) The country’s most respected charitable groups, its leading think tanks, its parliamentary  ommittees, independent authorities like the National Audit Office, and many others, have all drawn attention to the dramatic decline in the fortunes of the least well off in this country. (X) But through it all, the state (1) has remained determinedly (2) in a government (3) of denial while stubbornly (4) resisting to acknowledge the situation. (XI) Even while devolved __(F)__ in Scotland and Northern Ireland are frantically trying to devise ways to ‘mitigate’, or in other words counteract, at least the worst features of the Government’s benefits policy, Ministers insisted that all is well and running according to plan. (XII) Some tweaks to basic policy have __(G)__ been made, but there has been a determined resistance to change in response to the many problems. (XIII) However, the good news is that/ many of the problems could readily be solved/ if the Government is to acknowledge the problems/ and consider some of the recommendations below. (XIV)

With respect to the context of the passage, which of the following can be inferred from the italicized sentence mentioned in the fifth
segment (V) of the passage?

Note that we have to draw an inference from the concerned sentence, while keeping the context of the passage in mind. The sentence preceding the concerned sentence states that local authorities in England, which perform vital roles in providing a real social safety net, have been removed by a series of government policies. This implies that the social fabric has been adversely affected by the removal of certain local authorities. The concerned sentence futher states how institutions that are necessary for the social and recreational growth of an individual, have been shut down. This implies that the course of action will adversely affect the
social health of the people. Thus, option B is the correct answer. 

By: Munesh Kumari