NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q24: Both the parties were keen to have an ________ settlement

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q24?

D. Correct — D, 'amicable'. An amicable settlement is one reached in a friendly spirit, without the parties fighting it out, and that is precisely what two sides 'keen to have a settlement of the dispute' are after. The word is built on the Latin for a friend.

NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 24 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Both the parties were keen to have an ________ settlement of the dispute.

(a)enviable
(b)inimical
(c)worthy
(d)amicable

Answer

Why

Correct — D, 'amicable'. An amicable settlement is one reached in a friendly spirit, without the parties fighting it out, and that is precisely what two sides 'keen to have a settlement of the dispute' are after. The word is built on the Latin for a friend.

Why the others are wrong

(a)enviable — Means such as to be envied. A settlement may look enviable to an outsider, but that says nothing about the spirit in which the dispute was settled.
(b)inimical — Means hostile or unfriendly, so it reverses the sense the sentence needs.
(c)worthy — Ruled out twice over — it begins with a consonant sound and so would need 'a' rather than the printed 'an', and in sense it is too vague to be the point of the sentence.

Concept

'Amicable' describes settlements, agreements and separations conducted in a friendly spirit.

The printed article is a free clue here — 'an' rules out 'worthy' before the meanings are weighed at all. Of the three that remain, one is hostile and one is about envy, which leaves the friendly word. Keep 'amicable' apart from 'amiable', a pair that examiners return to: people are amiable, meaning good-natured and pleasant, while arrangements between people are amicable.

Key facts

'Amicable' and 'amiable' both descend from the Latin 'amicus', a friend.
'Amicable' is used of settlements, agreements and separations; 'amiable' is used of persons and their manner.
'Inimical' means hostile or harmful and is the opposite of 'amicable'.

Study next

Word pairs from a single root — amicable and amiableThe article 'a' or 'an' as a clue to a blankWords for agreement and for hostilityLatin roots in formal English vocabulary

Common traps

Confusing 'amicable' with 'amiable'.
Overlooking the printed 'an', which rules an option out before meaning is even considered.

Asked as a selecting-words item — pick the word most appropriate for the blank.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Fill the blank — The two neighbours reached an ________ agreement over the boundary.
- (a)amiable
- (b)amicable
- (c)inimical
- (d)enviable
Answer(b) amicable — agreements between parties are amicable, while people are amiable.
practice — not a real PYQ
The word 'inimical' means
- (a)friendly
- (b)hostile
- (c)imitative
- (d)essential
Answer(b) hostile — inimical interests work against one another.