Directions : Each item in this section consists of a sentence with an underlined word followed by four words. Select the option that is nearest in meaning to the underlined word and mark your response in your Answer Sheet accordingly. Today the newspaper is full of carnage and violence.

Correct — A, (a) bloodshed.

The Directions printed above this item ask for the word NEAREST in meaning to the underlined one, and the underlined word is ‘carnage’. Carnage is the killing of a great number of people — slaughter, butchery, massacre. Bloodshed is the killing or wounding of people, the shedding of blood in violence. The two words name the same thing, one of them with the emphasis on the scale of the killing and the other on what killing produces, and either can replace the other in this sentence without changing what it says.

The sentence itself supplies a second confirmation. ‘Full of carnage and violence’ pairs the underlined word with ‘violence’, and a pair joined by ‘and’ in this way normally belongs to one field. Whatever fills a newspaper alongside violence is of the same order as violence, and of the four options only one is.

The etymology fixes the sense beyond argument. ‘Carnage’ comes through French from Latin caro, carnis, flesh — the root behind carnal, carnivore, carnation, incarnation and the Latin phrase carne vale that lies behind carnival. A word built on flesh, used of a battlefield or a bombing, means slaughter, and slaughter shows itself as bloodshed.

The whole set from here to Q15 is printed exactly like the antonym set on the page before — a sentence with one word underlined, four words beneath — and the two ask opposite questions. The booklet marks the difference by setting the phrase ‘nearest in meaning’ in bold italic in this block, where the earlier block emphasised ‘opposite in meaning’. In plain text that emphasis vanishes, which is why the instruction has to be read here and carried through all five items.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)lust — ‘Lust’ is strong desire, most often sexual desire, and by extension any craving pursued without restraint — a lust for power, a lust for gold, the lust of battle. It names an appetite in a person, not an event in the world, and appetite is not slaughter. There is a distant connection, in that a lust for blood is one of the things that leads to carnage, but a cause is not a synonym, and a synonym item is decided by whether one word can stand in the sentence in place of the other. ‘Today the newspaper is full of lust and violence’ says something else entirely.
• (c)concern — ‘Concern’ has three ordinary senses, and none of them is close to carnage. It means anxiety or worry — a matter of grave concern; a matter that affects somebody — that is no concern of yours; and a business firm — a going concern, the phrase an Accounts Officer meets in balance sheets. All three are neutral or mild words, and the underlined word is one of the strongest in the language. The option tests whether the candidate is reading the sentence for its subject matter — a newspaper, which certainly may be full of matters of concern — rather than for the meaning of the one word that is underlined.
• (d)satire — ‘Satire’ is writing or speech that uses ridicule, irony and exaggeration to expose folly or vice, as in the work of Swift or the political cartoon in a daily paper. Like ‘concern’ it is offered because it is a thing newspapers contain, so it fits the sentence’s subject while having nothing to do with the underlined word. It also carries no violence at all: satire attacks with laughter, which is precisely what distinguishes it from invective or abuse. An option of this kind can be dismissed at sight once the candidate has fixed the meaning of the underlined word before looking down at the list.

This item opens the ‘Synonyms’ block, and it tests both a piece of vocabulary and the method for the whole block: substitute the candidate word into the printed sentence and see whether the sentence still says the same thing.

The vocabulary of mass killing is worth learning as a graded set, because English distinguishes carefully within it. CARNAGE is killing on a great scale, with the picture of a strewn battlefield behind it. SLAUGHTER is the same, and is also the ordinary word for the killing of animals for meat. MASSACRE is the killing of many people who are unresisting or defenceless. BLOODSHED is the general word for violence that costs life. BUTCHERY is slaughter treated as brutal and indiscriminate. HAVOC is widespread destruction, not necessarily of life. A word like ‘casualties’ belongs to a different register altogether, counting the dead and injured rather than describing the act.

The root is the most useful thing to bank. Latin caro, carnis, flesh, gives carnage, carnal, carnivorous, incarnate and carrion; the same word underlies carnival, from carne vale, the farewell to meat before Lent. A candidate who recognises the root can place ‘carnage’ correctly even without having met the word before, and the same trick works on dozens of others in these sections.

One caution about synonyms in general. Two words that share a dictionary definition may still differ in strength, in tone or in what they may be used of, and a synonym item is asking which word could actually stand in the printed sentence — not which words appear together in a thesaurus.

Key facts

• The Directions printed over this item govern Q11 to Q15 and ask for the word NEAREST in meaning to the underlined one; the preceding block, Q6 to Q10, is laid out identically and asks for the opposite.
• ‘Carnage’ means the killing of a great number of people, and comes through French from Latin caro, carnis, flesh — the root of carnal, carnivore, incarnation and carrion.
• ‘Bloodshed’ is the shedding of blood in violence, and stands as the general word of which carnage is the large-scale case.
• Within the family, massacre names the killing of the defenceless, butchery names brutal indiscriminate slaughter, and havoc names widespread destruction that need not cost life.
• ‘Lust’ names an appetite in a person — sexual desire, or any unrestrained craving such as a lust for power — and a cause of violence is not a synonym for violence.
• ‘Concern’ means anxiety, or a matter that affects someone, or a business firm; ‘satire’ is ridicule used to expose folly. Both are things a newspaper contains, which is the only connection either has with the sentence.

Common traps

• Reading the sentence for its topic. A newspaper may be full of concern and full of satire, and neither word has anything to do with the word underlined.
• Accepting a cause or a consequence as a synonym. A lust for blood may lead to carnage, which does not make the two words interchangeable.
• Carrying forward the previous block’s instruction. The antonym set on the page before is printed in the same shape, and only the Directions distinguish them.
• Judging by tone alone. ‘Lust’ is a strong and unpleasant word like ‘carnage’, but strength of feeling is not the same as sameness of meaning.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Select the option that is nearest in meaning to the underlined word : Reports from the district spoke of the carnage that followed the collapse of the embankment.

  • (a)confusion
  • (b)slaughter
  • (c)protest
  • (d)shortage

  Answer(b) slaughter — carnage is killing on a great scale, and ‘slaughter’ names exactly that, so it can stand in the sentence without altering what it reports. ‘Confusion’ describes disorder rather than death, ‘protest’ names a reaction to events, and ‘shortage’ belongs to supply, so none of the three could replace the underlined word.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following words does NOT belong to the family built on the Latin root caro, carnis, meaning flesh ?

  • (a)carnivore
  • (b)incarnation
  • (c)carnage
  • (d)carbine

  Answer(d) carbine — a carbine is a short rifle and has no connection with the Latin word for flesh. ‘Carnivore’ is a flesh eater, ‘incarnation’ is the taking on of flesh, and ‘carnage’ is slaughter, so all three are built on caro, carnis.