<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
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.
- (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.
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'.
- '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.
- 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.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- 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.