Directions: Fill in the blank with the appropriate preposition from the given set of choices.

________ his children, there were present his nephews and nieces.

'Besides' means 'in addition to' or 'apart from', which fits the sentence indicating that nephews and nieces were present along with the children. 'Beside' means 'next to' and refers to physical position, which does not fit the logic of the list. 'With' and 'In' do not correctly introduce the additional group in this sentence structure.