Read the following statement carefully.

___________like a fake can be a sign of___________, and clinging too tightly to what feels like one’s authentic self can ________that growth.

Fill in the blanks meaningfully, in the above statement, from the following options.

Option B is the best fit for the blanks in the sentence based purely on grammatical and logical sense.

Feeling like a fake can be a sign of growth, and clinging too tightly to what feels like one’s authentic self can hinder that growth. This statement suggests that sometimes, feeling out of place or like you’re not being true to yourself can actually be a sign that you’re growing and evolving. However, if you cling too tightly to your current sense of self, it could prevent you from embracing that growth.

This option fills in the blanks while maintaining the sentence’s grammatical structure and logical coherence.

Option C may seem like a good fit at first glance. From a grammatical and idiomatic perspective, the phrase “behaving like a fake” is not a common idiom or phrase, and it doesn’t quite convey a clear meaning. Also, the second part of the sentence suggests that clinging to one’s authentic self can “support” growth. However, in the context of the sentence, this seems contradictory. If behaving like a fake is a sign of improvement, then clinging to one’s authentic self would more likely hinder than support this improvement.

The alternative choices, which involve actions such as acting, performing, or operating like a fake, lack idiomatic coherence. Furthermore, they suggest ideas that either contradict each other or don’t fit the context of personal growth.