EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 13 of 120

Correct — A, (a) in hand. This item is not really about grammar. The sentence is a proverb, and a proverb is a fixed form of words: the blank is asking whether you know how it goes, not which filler you would choose if you were composing the sentence yourself. The saying is ‘A bird in hand is better than two in the bush’ — most often quoted as ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’, with the same first half, and the meaning is that a small certain gain is preferable to a larger uncertain one. Two things back the fixed wording up, and they are worth having because they generalise to other idiom items. The first is parallel structure. The proverb balances two prepositional phrases of the same shape — one bird ‘in hand’ against two ‘in the bush’ — so that the contrast falls on possession against pursuit. Only ‘in hand’ preserves that shape; an adjective or a differently built phrase breaks the balance the saying depends on for its point. The second is the sense of the phrase itself. ‘In hand’ means in one’s possession or under one’s control — cash in hand, the matter is in hand — which is exactly the idea the proverb needs: the bird you already have. The other options either name a different relation or are not available in this position at all. So the answer is (a), and the way to reach it is to recognise the sentence as a set phrase early and then to reconstruct the phrase rather than to reason about the grammar of ‘bird’.

• (b)to hand — ‘to hand’ is real English and means within reach or readily available — I did not have the file to hand, keep a copy to hand. Two things rule it out. It is used with a verb such as have, keep or be, not as a bare modifier sitting after a noun, so ‘a bird to hand’ does not stand on its own. And it is not the wording of the proverb, which is the only test that finally matters in an idiom item: a phrase can be good English, be close in meaning, and still be the wrong words.
• (c)handy — ‘handy’ is an adjective meaning convenient or close by. English does not let a plain adjective follow a bare noun in this way — you can say a handy bird, or something handy, but not a bird handy — and the postmodifying position here belongs to a prepositional phrase. It also destroys the balance of the saying, which sets ‘in hand’ against ‘in the bush’; with an adjective on one side and a phrase on the other, the contrast the proverb is built on stops working.
• (d)in one’s hands — ‘in one’s hands’ fails on three counts. The possessive ‘one’s’ needs somebody to refer to, and a proverb stated impersonally supplies nobody. The plural ‘hands’ departs from the fixed singular of the saying. And as an idiom, ‘in one’s hands’ has drifted to mean within one’s power or one’s responsibility — the decision is in your hands — which is not the possession the proverb is contrasting with the birds still in the bush.

Idioms and proverbs are tested in this section because they cannot be worked out. Their meaning is not the sum of their parts and their wording is not open to substitution: you may not improve ‘a bird in hand’ into ‘a bird within reach’, however close the sense, because the phrase is a single lexical item that happens to be spelt with spaces. The family of ‘hand’ phrases is a good one to learn as a set, since the members differ by a single small word and are regularly set against one another. ‘In hand’ — in one’s possession, or under control, or in progress: cash in hand, the work is in hand, he had an hour in hand. ‘At hand’ — near, in place or in time: help was at hand, the examination is at hand. ‘On hand’ — present and available: the engineer was on hand throughout. ‘To hand’ — within reach when wanted: I do not have the figures to hand. ‘By hand’ — manually: the letters were delivered by hand. ‘Out of hand’ — either out of control, or without consideration: the meeting got out of hand, the proposal was rejected out of hand. ‘In one’s hands’ — within one’s power or responsibility. The proverb itself says that a certain small advantage is preferable to a larger prospect that may not come off — the same idea English also carries in ‘half a loaf is better than no bread’.

Q13 is the third item of the cloze set and prints only its sentence; the Directions block for Q11 to Q15 stands above Q11. It marks the point where the set turns from grammar to vocabulary: Q11 was decided by a time phrase and Q12 by the choice of subject, while this one and the next are decided by what English happens to say. One printing point is worth flagging, because a candidate who knows the proverb well may hesitate over it. The booklet prints ‘is better than two in the bush’, where the saying is more usually quoted as ‘is worth two in the bush’. The sense is unchanged and the blank lies in the first half of the sentence, so nothing in the item turns on it; the wording is reproduced here exactly as printed. Hesitating over a familiar phrase that has been quoted loosely is a common way to lose time in this section, and the answer is to fix on the part of the sentence the blank actually sits in.

• The proverb runs ‘A bird in hand is better than two in the bush’, and is also quoted as ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’; its sense is that a certain small gain beats a larger uncertain one.
• ‘In hand’ means in one’s possession, under control, or in progress — cash in hand, the work is in hand.
• ‘To hand’ means within reach when wanted and is used with have, keep or be, so it cannot modify a bare noun.
• ‘In one’s hands’ means within one’s power or responsibility, which is a different relation from simple possession.
• The proverb balances two prepositional phrases, ‘in hand’ against ‘in the bush’, and only a prepositional phrase preserves that structure.

• Choosing the option closest in meaning. ‘To hand’ means very nearly what the proverb needs and is still not the proverb.
• Trying to parse an idiom. Once a sentence is recognised as a set phrase, the task is recall, and time spent on its grammar is time lost.
• Being unsettled by a proverb quoted in a slightly unfamiliar form. The booklet’s ‘is better than’ for ‘is worth’ changes nothing about the blank.
• Reaching for a possessive where the saying is impersonal. ‘In one’s hands’ imports an owner the proverb never names.

The five-item cloze set in this paper mixes grammar and vocabulary, and the vocabulary items are usually a proverb, a fixed collocation or a verb whose sense has to match a formal context. In every case the four options are close enough in meaning that a candidate reasoning from sense alone will find two or three defensible, and the item is decided by which words English actually uses together. That makes idiom items pure recall, and the preparation for them is a list learnt exactly, not a rule.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Select the most appropriate option for the blank : The regional office had the figures ________ when the audit team asked for them, so the meeting was not delayed.

  • (a)in hand
  • (b)to hand
  • (c)out of hand
  • (d)by hand

  Answer(b) to hand — ‘have something to hand’ means to have it within reach at the moment it is wanted, which is what the clause about the audit team requires. ‘In hand’ would say the figures were in preparation or under control, ‘out of hand’ means out of control or without consideration, and ‘by hand’ describes a manner of doing.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Select the most appropriate option for the blank : Having failed to reach agreement on the main clause, the two sides settled for a partial understanding, on the view that ________.

  • (a)half a loaf is better than no bread
  • (b)too many cooks spoil the broth
  • (c)a stitch in time saves nine
  • (d)every cloud has a silver lining

  Answer(a) half a loaf is better than no bread — the proverb means that a partial gain is preferable to nothing at all, which is exactly the reasoning described. The others concern interference by too many people, timely repair, and consolation in misfortune, none of which fits a settlement for less than was sought.