NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 48 of 150

Correct — C, short. 'Short of' means not having enough of something, so 'I am very short of cash at the moment' says exactly what a request for a loan needs it to say.

• (a)down — 'Down' is used with 'on' in this kind of sense, as in 'down on his luck', and 'down of cash' is not English.
• (b)low — The meaning is right but the preposition is wrong; the expression is 'low on cash', and the sentence has already printed 'of' after the blank.
• (d)scarce — 'Scarce' describes the thing that is in short supply, not the person who lacks it, so one says 'cash is scarce' and not 'I am scarce of cash'.

An adjective and the preposition it takes travel together, so the printed preposition decides which adjective can fill the blank.

Two of the four options carry roughly the right meaning, and the 'of' already in the sentence separates them. 'Short of' is standard, and 'low on' is equally standard, but the second needs a preposition the sentence does not offer.

• 'Short of' also appears in 'short of breath', 'short of time' and 'nothing short of remarkable'.
• 'Run short of' means to use up one's supply of something.
• 'Scarce' is used of goods and resources, not of the person who lacks them.

• Choosing an option whose meaning fits without checking the preposition already printed.

Asked as a blank-filling item where the preposition after the blank rules out a near-synonym.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word that best fills the blank — After climbing four flights of stairs he was ____ of breath.

  • (a)low
  • (b)short
  • (c)scarce
  • (d)down

  Answer(b) short — 'short of breath' is the fixed expression.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word that best fills the blank — We are running ____ on petrol and must stop at the next pump.

  • (a)short
  • (b)low
  • (c)scarce
  • (d)down

  Answer(b) low — with 'on' the adjective English uses is 'low'.