Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part A. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

The dress isn't really tight. It'll ________ when you've worn it.

(a)bend
(b)expand
(c)squeeze
(d)stretch

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) stretch.

‘Stretch’ is the verb English keeps for cloth, leather, elastic and skin that give way and grow longer or wider under pull. Used of a garment it is intransitive — the material does it by itself: shoes stretch with wear, a woollen jumper stretches, a new dress stretches once it has been worn a few times. That is exactly the reassurance the speaker is offering. The first sentence denies that the dress is tight, and the second explains why the tightness will not last: wearing it will pull the fabric and the fabric will give.

The two sentences are doing the arguing, so read them together. ‘Isn’t really tight’ sets up a small problem, and the blank has to name what removes it. A verb that makes the garment smaller, or that describes a rigid object changing shape, cannot be the answer whatever else it may mean. Only ‘stretch’ names cloth yielding to the body inside it.

The grammar around the blank is worth as much as the vocabulary, and this sentence is built out of three contractions — isn’t, it’ll, you’ve. ‘It’ll’ is the plain future, and after it the time clause takes ‘when you’ve worn it’, a present perfect and not a future. English never puts ‘will’ inside a clause of time: when you have finished, once you have read it, as soon as she has left, after he has gone. The present perfect there marks the action as completed before the main event happens, which is precisely the sense wanted — the dress gives after a few wearings, not during the first one.

Why the others are wrong

(a)bend — To bend is to force something straight into a curve, or to become curved — bend a wire, bend a bar, bend down to pick something up, a road that bends to the left. It describes a change of shape along a line, and it belongs to things stiff enough to hold that shape: metal, wood, a spine, a branch. Cloth is limp, so it hangs, folds, creases and drapes; it does not bend. And even if it did, bending would not answer the problem the first sentence raises, because a bend changes direction rather than size and would leave the dress exactly as tight as before.
(b)expand — ‘Expand’ is the nearest miss in the set, and it fails on register and on physics rather than on plain meaning. It means to grow larger in size, volume or extent, and English uses it of gases and metals under heat, of a business or a town that grows, of the universe, of the lungs, of an idea worked out at greater length. It implies growth in all directions and, in its everyday uses, growth from within. A garment behaves differently: it does not swell, it yields to a pull, and the specific verb for yielding to a pull is ‘stretch’. ‘The dress will expand’ would suggest the fabric was generating its own extra volume, which is not what wearing a dress does to it.
(c)squeeze — To squeeze is to press something firmly from the sides, usually to compress it or to force liquid or a body through a narrow space — squeeze a lemon, squeeze a sponge, squeeze through a gap, squeeze into a crowded lift. It moves in the wrong direction entirely: squeezing makes a thing smaller or tighter, and the speaker is promising the opposite. It is also normally transitive, needing somebody to do the squeezing, so ‘it will squeeze’ leaves the reader asking what the dress is supposed to be pressing. The word is in the set because it belongs to the vocabulary of tight clothing, not because it fits the blank.

Concept

This item tests the specific verb rather than the general one — the habit of choosing the word English actually uses of a particular material or situation, when several words share the same broad sense of getting bigger.

All four options describe a change of shape or size. What separates them is what each is used of. ‘Stretch’ is used of flexible material pulled beyond its resting length: elastic, rubber, leather, wool, skin, a spring. ‘Expand’ is used of volume increasing, especially from heat or pressure or growth: gases expand, metals expand, an economy expands, the lungs expand. ‘Bend’ is used of rigid things forced into a curve. ‘Squeeze’ is used of compression from outside. A candidate who reads only for the broad idea of ‘becoming looser’ will accept two of these; a candidate who asks which verb the material itself takes will accept one.

‘Stretch’ carries a second life in idiom that is worth banking: to stretch one’s legs, to stretch a point, to stretch the truth, to stretch resources, a stretch of road, at a stretch, at full stretch. The common thread in all of them is something extended beyond its ordinary limit.

The sentence also illustrates the rule for time clauses. After when, until, before, after, as soon as and once, English uses a present or present perfect form for future time and never ‘will’: ‘It’ll stretch when you’ve worn it’, not ‘when you will have worn it’.

This is the third item of the ‘Fill in the blanks’ set that opens Part A. The Directions were printed once, above Q1, and this item shows only its two sentences, so the instruction to pick the most appropriate word for the blank has to be carried forward by the candidate.

The item is a fair sample of how the set is built. The vocabulary is ordinary — every option is a word a school pupil knows — and the difficulty is placed entirely in the distinction between near-synonyms. That is deliberate. A recruitment paper for Enforcement Officers and Accounts Officers is testing whether a candidate can write and read plain official English precisely, not whether a rare word has been memorised, and precision shows up most clearly when two common words mean almost the same thing.

The practical method is substitution. Put each candidate into the sentence and say it: it’ll bend when you’ve worn it, it’ll expand when you’ve worn it, it’ll squeeze when you’ve worn it, it’ll stretch when you’ve worn it. The ear that has read enough English settles the question in one pass, and the reasoning above explains why the ear is right.

Key facts

‘Stretch’ is the verb English uses of flexible material that lengthens or widens under pull — elastic, rubber, leather, wool, skin — and it is used intransitively of garments: shoes stretch, a jumper stretches with wear.
‘Expand’ names an increase in volume or extent, typically outward in every direction and often from heat, pressure or growth: gases and metals expand, a business expands, the lungs expand.
‘Bend’ requires something rigid enough to hold a curve, and ‘squeeze’ names compression from outside, which is the opposite of the change the sentence promises.
After when, until, before, after, once and as soon as, English uses a present or present perfect tense for future time — ‘when you’ve worn it’, never ‘when you will have worn it’.
The present perfect in that clause marks the wearing as complete before the stretching shows, which is why it is preferred here to a plain present.
Idioms built on the same core sense of extension beyond the ordinary limit: stretch one’s legs, stretch a point, stretch the truth, a stretch of road, at full stretch.

All four name a change of shape; only one is used of cloth

stretch→The verb English keeps for flexible material that lengthens or widens under pull — elastic, rubber, leather, wool, skin. Of a garment it is intransitive, the material doing it by itself: shoes stretch with wear, a jumper stretches. That is the reassurance the speaker is offering.

expand→The nearest miss. It names an increase in volume or extent, typically outward in every direction and often from heat, pressure or growth: gases and metals expand, a business expands, the lungs expand. It fails on what it is used of, not on its broad sense.

bend→To force something straight into a curve. It belongs to things stiff enough to hold that shape — metal, wood, a branch, a spine. Cloth is limp: it hangs, folds, creases and drapes.

squeeze→To press firmly from the sides — squeeze a lemon, squeeze through a gap. It moves in the wrong direction entirely, making a thing smaller when the speaker is promising the opposite.

The time clause→After when, until, before, after, once and as soon as, English uses a present or present perfect form for future time: ‘when you’ve worn it’, never ‘when you will have worn it’.

Study next

Near-synonyms of increase and their proper subjects: stretch, expand, extend, enlarge, swell, inflate, dilate, distend.Verbs that are used intransitively of materials — cloth stretches, glass breaks, milk spoils, doors open — and the transitive forms beside them.Time clauses and the ban on ‘will’ after when, until, before, after, as soon as and once.The present perfect for an action completed before a future point, and its contrast with the plain present in the same clause.Idioms built on ‘stretch’: stretch a point, stretch the truth, stretch one’s legs, at a stretch, at full stretch, a stretch of road.

Common traps

Settling for the option that shares the broad idea. Bend, expand and stretch all describe a change of shape, and only one of them is used of cloth giving under wear.
Ignoring the direction of the change. ‘Squeeze’ makes a thing tighter, which is the reverse of what the first sentence promises the wearer.
Choosing ‘expand’ because it sounds more formal. On a language paper the register that earns is the accurate one, and the accurate verb for fabric is the plainer word.
Writing ‘when you will have worn it’ in a sentence of your own. A clause of time takes a present or present perfect however clearly the future is meant.

Near-synonym discrimination is the backbone of the whole English section on this paper: it decides this fill-in-the-blanks item, it decides the antonym set at Q6 to Q10 and it decides the synonym set at Q11 to Q15. The shape of the trap is constant — three of the four options share the general area of meaning and differ in what they may be used of, in how strong they are, or in whether they carry approval or blame. Expect at least one option in every such item to be the right idea attached to the wrong subject, as ‘expand’ is here. The way to prepare is to learn words with their typical subjects and objects attached rather than as bare dictionary glosses.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q1Open & attempt →

Directions : Each of the following sentences in this section has a blank space and four words or group of words given after the sentence. Select the word or group of words you consider most appropriate for the blank space and indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly. It's time you went out and ____________ your own living.

(a) afforded
(b) earned
(c) gained
(d) won

Answer(b) earned

The anchor of this set, carrying the Directions printed once over Q1, and decided by the same substitution habit — say the whole phrase, not the single word.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q4Open & attempt →

With his back to the old man, he stood at the window, fists clenched, and his shoulders _________ with his choked sobbing.

(a) shivered
(b) shook
(c) vibrated
(d) moved

Answer(b) shook

The next item of the set, another near-synonym choice where three of the four options name a kind of trembling and only one is used of shoulders in grief.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Select the word most appropriate for the blank space : The steel girders were laid with gaps between them because the metal ________ in the summer heat.
- (a)stretches
- (b)expands
- (c)squeezes
- (d)bends
Answer(b) expands — thermal expansion is an increase in volume in every direction, and ‘expand’ is the verb English uses of metals, gases and liquids heated up; the gaps in a bridge or a rail joint exist for exactly that. ‘Stretches’ would need something being pulled, ‘squeezes’ names compression from outside, and ‘bends’ names a curve rather than a change of size.
practice — not a real PYQ
Select the option that completes the sentence correctly : The department will issue the certificate as soon as it ________ the verification report.
- (a)will receive
- (b)will have received
- (c)receives
- (d)would receive
Answer(c) receives — a clause introduced by ‘as soon as’ is a clause of time, and English uses a present or present perfect form in it for future time, never ‘will’ or ‘would’. The future sits in the main clause, ‘will issue’, and the time clause takes the plain present, exactly as ‘when you’ve worn it’ takes the present perfect in the printed sentence.

Why