In the sentence 'I was impressed____subways my first time in Europe,' the missing word is a preposition. Which part of speech is it?

• A. Preposition
• B. Conjunction
• C. Adverb
• D. Pronoun

Answer: (A)

After a verb like impressed, we often add a phrase that shows what caused the feeling. The missing word should introduce a link to the noun that follows, and that kind of link is a preposition. Putting a preposition before subways gives a prepositional phrase like by subways, which tells what caused the impression. This fits naturally with the meaning of impressed: you’re impressed by something, or with something, rather than connecting two clauses or simply modifying the verb. Conjunctions would join clauses, which isn’t needed here; an adverb would modify the verb or entire clause rather than introduce a noun phrase; a pronoun would replace a noun, not come before it. So the appropriate part of speech is a preposition.