_____ of the students turned up, so the lecture was cancelled?
Answer Details
The best option to complete the sentence is "few."
The word "few" is used to describe a small number of countable objects, such as people in this case. It means that not many students turned up for the lecture, so the event was cancelled.
On the other hand, "little" is used to describe an amount of uncountable objects, such as water or time. For example, "There is little water left in the bottle." Therefore, "little" is not appropriate to complete the sentence as it does not accurately describe the number of students who turned up.
The option "a few" could also be considered correct, but it implies that there were some students who showed up, albeit not enough for the lecture to proceed. However, without any further context, it is difficult to determine if this option is more appropriate than "few."