EPFO APFC 2023 General Studies · Question 6 of 120

Correct — C, (c) 'Often used and unoriginal ideas'. The word underlined in the booklet is 'platitudes', and the Directions printed above this item — which govern items 6 to 10 — ask for the option closest in meaning to that word. A platitude is a remark or statement, usually one with a moral or uplifting flavour, that has been repeated so often that it has lost all force, and that is offered as though it were fresh insight — 'every cloud has a silver lining', 'hard work always pays'. The defining features are exactly the two the option names: it has been used many times before, and it is not the writer's own. Nothing in the meaning concerns truth. Most platitudes are perfectly true, and that is why they slip past a careless reader; what makes them a fault in an essay is that they occupy the space where an argument should be. The etymology makes the point: 'platitude' comes from the French 'plat', flat, and the metaphor is flatness and staleness, not error or fuzziness. The sentence supports the reading twice over. It is an essay that has been 'badly researched', so what it is short of is original thinking backed by evidence; and it contains 'platitudes and generalizations', two items joined by 'and'. Coordination of this kind marks two distinct faults, so the answer cannot be an option that simply means 'over-broad statement' — that fault is already named by 'generalizations'.

• (a)Incorrect statements — Attacks the truth of the statements, which is not what 'platitude' is about. A platitude is typically true — 'honesty is the best policy', 'time heals all wounds' — and its being true is part of why it is so easy to write and so hard to object to. The word condemns a remark for being stale and unearned, not for being false. Nothing in the sentence supports a charge of factual error either: the essay is faulted for poor research and for what it contains, and the word for a false statement would be 'falsehood', 'error' or 'misstatement'.
• (b)Imprecise comments — Attacks the precision of the statements. A platitude can be entirely precise and still be a platitude; 'practice makes perfect' is not imprecise, it is worn out. Imprecision describes how carefully something is worded, whereas 'platitude' describes how often the thought has already been expressed by other people. A candidate who has only a vague sense that the word is derogatory will find this plausible, which is why it is offered; the way to reject it is to define the word before reading the options, then look for the option that names over-use.
• (d)Vague, subjective statements — Repeats the fault of (b) and adds 'subjective', which is a separate charge again — a platitude may be an entirely conventional, impersonal observation with no trace of the writer's own view in it. This option is also blocked by the sentence itself. The essay 'contained several platitudes and generalizations', and two nouns joined by 'and' name two different defects, so the option that amounts to 'sweeping, unsupported statements' has been assigned to 'generalizations' already and cannot also be the meaning of the underlined word.

The four options in this item are sorted by which property of a statement they attack: (a) attacks its truth, (b) and (d) attack its precision, and only (c) attacks its originality. That is the general shape of a closest-in-meaning item — the distractors are not random, they are neighbouring criticisms of the same object, and the test is whether you know which criticism the word actually makes. 'Platitude' belongs to a small family of words for tired language, and the family is worth separating properly. A cliché is an expression whose wording has been worn smooth by repetition. A truism is a statement so obviously true that making it adds nothing. A platitude is a flat, usually moralising remark delivered as if it carried weight. A generalisation is a claim stretched over more cases than the evidence supports. Overlapping, but each faults a different thing — phrasing, obviousness, staleness, scope — and examiners build vocabulary items precisely out of such near neighbours. The working method follows from this: fix your own definition of the underlined word first, name the property it attacks, and only then look at the options.

Items 6 to 10 of the APFC General Studies paper form the vocabulary set, printed under a single Directions block above item 6: five sentences, one underlined word in each, four options, and the instruction to choose the one closest in meaning. At 2·5 marks each with a third deducted for a wrong answer, the set rewards precision about words a candidate half-knows and punishes recognition-level familiarity, because every distractor here is a phrase that a half-knower would accept. This item shows the two habits that carry the whole set. First, define before you read the options, otherwise the options define the word for you. Second, use the sentence: 'badly researched' tells you the essay lacks its own thinking, and 'platitudes and generalizations' tells you, through the simple fact of coordination, that the underlined word cannot mean what its neighbour means. Note also that the booklet sets this page in two columns, with items 6 and 7 on the left and 8 to 10 on the right, so the Directions block sits above the left column only — one reason a candidate skimming the right-hand column can lose sight of what the set is asking.

• A platitude is a remark or statement, often with a moral flavour, that has been used so often that it has lost its force, and that is nonetheless offered as though it were significant. The corresponding adjective is 'platitudinous', and the quality is 'platitude' or 'banality'.
• The word entered English from French 'plat', meaning flat, formed on the pattern of words like 'latitude'. The metaphor behind it is flatness and dullness — the absence of relief or interest — and not falsehood, which is why an option about incorrect statements is a category error rather than a near miss.
• Platitude, cliché, truism and banality are neighbours but fault different things: a cliché is worn-out wording, a truism is a statement too obvious to be worth making, a platitude is a stale moralising remark passed off as insight, and a banality is simply something dull and unoriginal.
• The sentence coordinates 'platitudes and generalizations'. Two nouns joined by 'and' in a list of faults name two different faults, so any option that means 'sweeping or over-broad statement' is claimed by the second noun and cannot be the meaning of the first — a structural clue that settles this item without recourse to a dictionary.
• The Directions block for this set is printed once, above item 6, and governs items 6 to 10; the booklet prints 'five' in bold and the option letters in italics. The instruction is 'closest to the meaning', which asks for the nearest available match, not for a perfect definition.

• Assuming a derogatory word must mean 'wrong'. 'Platitude' is a criticism of freshness, not of accuracy, and most platitudes are true statements.
• Reading the options before fixing your own definition. Every distractor here is a plausible complaint about a badly written essay, so the options will happily supply a meaning if you arrive without one.
• Ignoring the word next to the underlined one. 'Platitudes and generalizations' rules out the two options that amount to 'vague, over-broad statements', because coordination in a list of faults implies the faults are distinct.

The APFC vocabulary set takes five words of the kind an educated reader recognises but may not be able to define — abstract nouns, adjectives of judgement, words with a familiar shape and a precise sense — and surrounds each with four options that are all defensible descriptions of something. The examiner's method is to offer neighbouring criticisms rather than opposites, so elimination by feel does not work and the item is decided by the one component of meaning that only the key contains. Expect at least one item in each set where the surrounding sentence, not the dictionary, provides the deciding evidence, as the coordination with 'generalizations' does here.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the option closest in meaning to the underlined word: 'The minister's speech was a string of hackneyed phrases that moved nobody in the audience.'

  • (a)deliberately misleading
  • (b)worn out by overuse
  • (c)unnecessarily technical
  • (d)carelessly delivered

  Answer(b) worn out by overuse — 'hackneyed' means made stale and uninteresting by constant repetition, from the hackney horse hired out until it was worn down. It says nothing about honesty, difficulty or delivery, so the options attacking truthfulness, technicality and manner all attack a property the word does not name.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following best describes a truism, as distinct from a platitude?

  • (a)A statement that is false but widely believed
  • (b)A statement so obviously true that asserting it adds nothing
  • (c)A statement expressed in unnecessarily ornate language
  • (d)A statement that generalises beyond the available evidence

  Answer(b) A statement so obviously true that asserting it adds nothing — a truism is faulted for obviousness, whereas a platitude is faulted for staleness and for being offered as though it were insight. Option (d) describes a generalisation, option (c) describes ornate or florid writing, and option (a) describes a common fallacy or misconception, not a truism.