31. Missing Negative Words

The answer choices for this type of item are four negative expressions, such as the ones listed below:

Negative Word	Use	Meaning	Example
no	adjective	not any	There was no milk in the refrigerator.
none	pronoun	not one	They took a lot of pictures, but almost none of them turned out.
nothing	pronoun	not anything	There was nothing in his briefcase.
no one	pronoun	not anyone	No one arrived at the meeting on time.
nor	conjunction	and . . . not	He\’s never been fishing, nor does he plan to go.
without	preposition	not having	She likes her coffee without milk or sugar.
never	adverb	at no time	I\’ve never been to Alaska.

The negative word not is used to make almost any kind of word or phrase negative: verbs, prepositional phrases, infinitives, adjectives, and so on.
Both no and not can be used before nouns, depending on meaning.

There is no coffee in the pot. (It\’s empty.)
This is not coffee. (It\’s tea.)

The adjective no is also used before the word longer to mean \”not anymore.\”

I no longer read the afternoon paper

∇ Sample Item

There is almost ________________ vegetation in the Badlands, a barren region of South Dakota.

(A) not
(B) nor
(C) none
(D) no

Choices (A), (B), and (C) cannot be used before nouns as adjectives. Therefore, the correct answer is (D).

By the way, probably the most common correct answer for this type of problem is the adjective no.