<u>Hospitality</u> is a virtue for which the natives of the East in general are highly admired.
- (a)Duty of a doctor
- (b)Generosity shown to guests
- (c)Cleanliness in hospitals
- (d)Kindness
Answer
Why
Correct: B, 'Generosity shown to guests'. Hospitality is the friendly and generous reception of guests, visitors and strangers: the welcome at the door and the care taken of someone under your roof. The option spells out exactly that, and it is the virtue the sentence says the East is admired for.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Duty of a doctor: Pulled in by the look of the word 'hospital', which shares an ancestor with 'hospitality' but not its meaning.
- (c)Cleanliness in hospitals: The same false trail: a hospital is a place, while hospitality is a way of treating people.
- (d)Kindness: On the right side but far too wide. Hospitality is kindness of one particular sort, shown to guests, whereas kindness covers conduct towards anyone at all.
Concept
Hospitality is the generous and friendly treatment of guests, visitors and strangers.
Three of the four options are built out of one trap. 'Hospital', 'hospitality', 'host', 'hostel' and 'hotel' all descend from the Latin 'hospes', a guest or a host, which is why the words look alike; meanings drift apart even when spellings stay close. The other lesson is about scale: where one option is a wider word and another is the exact one, a synonym item wants the exact one, which is why 'Kindness' loses to 'Generosity shown to guests'.
Key facts
- 'Hospitality', 'hospital', 'host', 'hostel' and 'hotel' all go back to the Latin 'hospes', meaning a guest or a host.
- A synonym item asks for the closest match, so a word merely in the same area of meaning is not enough.
- The adjective is 'hospitable', and its opposite, 'inhospitable', is used both of people and of places.
Study next
Common traps
- Choosing an option because it shares letters with the underlined word.
- Settling for a broader word when an exact one is on the list.
Asked as a synonym item: pick the word or group of words most similar in meaning to the underlined word.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice, not a real PYQ
Which word is closest in meaning to 'host'?
- (a)guest
- (b)one who receives guests
- (c)stranger
- (d)servant
Answer(b) one who receives guests: the host entertains, the guest is entertained. - practice, not a real PYQ
Which word is closest in meaning to 'benevolent'?
- (a)kindly
- (b)wealthy
- (c)strict
- (d)talkative
Answer(a) kindly: benevolent means well-meaning and kindly disposed.