NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q5: It is most essential for us to reach the station before

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q5?

A. Correct — A, 'It is most essential for us'. 'Essential' is an absolute adjective — a thing either is indispensable or it is not — so it is not graded with 'most' or 'very'. The segment should read simply 'It is essential for us…'.

NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 5 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

It is most essential for us to reach the station before noon lest we should miss the train. No error.

(a)It is most essential for us
(b)to reach the station before noon
(c)lest we should miss the train.
(d)No error.

Answer

Why

Correct — A, 'It is most essential for us'. 'Essential' is an absolute adjective — a thing either is indispensable or it is not — so it is not graded with 'most' or 'very'. The segment should read simply 'It is essential for us…'.

Why the others are wrong

(b)to reach the station before noon — Error-free — 'for us to reach' is the standard pattern after 'it is essential'.
(c)lest we should miss the train. — Error-free — 'lest' is completed by 'should', and 'lest we should miss the train' is the textbook form.
(d)No error. — The intensifier in the first segment cannot stand, so the sentence carries a mistake.

Concept

Absolute adjectives — essential, unique, perfect, complete, supreme — already express the highest degree, so a comparative or a superlative added to them is redundant.

'Most' can mean 'very' in formal English, as in 'it is most kind of you', and that is what lets the first segment slip past the eye. The point stands all the same — what is indispensable cannot be more indispensable. Segment (c) is worth learning positively rather than suspecting: 'lest' already carries a negative sense, so it is completed by 'should' and never by a second 'not'. Papers test that construction from the other side, by printing 'lest ... do not'.

Key facts

'Lest' is followed by 'should' — lest he should fall, lest we should miss the train.
Adding 'not' after 'lest' produces a double negative and is wrong.
Absolute adjectives include unique, perfect, complete, entire, supreme and essential.

Study next

Absolute adjectives that resist comparison'Lest' and the verb form that follows itRedundant comparatives — more better, most uniqueThe 'it is + adjective + for + object + to-infinitive' frame

Common traps

Accepting 'most essential' because 'most' can mean 'very'.
Writing 'lest we should not miss the train'.

Asked as an error-spotting item — name the segment that carries the mistake, or mark 'No error.'

Related PYQs

NDA_GAT_2019_II_Q232019Open & attempt →

Work hard (a) lest you do not (b) fail (c). No error (d)

(a) Work hard
(b) lest you do not
(c) fail
(d) No error

Answer(b) lest you do not

The 'lest' clause that is error-free here is the tested fault there — 'lest' carries its own negative, so 'lest you do not fail' has to become 'lest you should fail'. Between the two items the construction is covered from both sides.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which segment carries the error — (a) Take an umbrella / (b) lest you should not / (c) get wet. / (d) No error
- (a)Take an umbrella
- (b)lest you should not
- (c)get wet.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) lest you should not — 'lest' already carries the negative, so it reads 'lest you should get wet'.
practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct sentence.
- (a)This is the most unique painting in the gallery.
- (b)This is a unique painting in the gallery.
- (c)This is a very unique painting.
- (d)This is the more unique painting.
Answer(b) This is a unique painting in the gallery — 'unique' admits no degrees.