NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 47 of 150

Correct — C, nasty. 'Nasty' is the ordinary English adjective for an accident that is severe and unpleasant in its consequences, and it is the only one of the four that describes damage rather than wickedness. The sentence reports one thing and one thing only — a car damaged beyond repair. No one is said to be hurt or killed, and nobody is blamed. 'A nasty accident' fits that report exactly.

• (a)outrageous — 'Outrageous' means shockingly wrong, offensive or unacceptable, and it is aimed at conduct — an outrageous remark, an outrageous demand. An accident is by definition unintended, so there is no conduct for the word to condemn.
• (b)ghastly — 'Ghastly' means causing great horror, and in reports of accidents it is reserved for those with dead or badly injured people. Here only the vehicle is said to be damaged, so the word overshoots what the sentence actually states.
• (d)heinous — 'Heinous' means utterly wicked, and it belongs with deliberate crimes — a heinous murder, a heinous betrayal. It cannot describe an accident at all, because wickedness requires intention.

A cloze item testing which strong negative adjective an English speaker actually pairs with 'accident', and how far each of those adjectives goes beyond 'bad'.

This is the hardest of the five blanks, and it is worth being honest about why. 'Ghastly accident' is a real collocation, and many candidates chose it. The key takes 'nasty', and the way to see it is to notice what the sentence claims and what it does not. It claims damage to a car and nothing more — no injury, no death, no wrongdoing. 'Heinous' and 'outrageous' need a wrongdoer, which an accident does not have; 'ghastly' needs horror, which usually means casualties, and none are mentioned; 'nasty' needs only that the outcome was bad, which is precisely what 'damaged beyond repair' establishes. Read the option against the evidence in the sentence rather than against the general idea of a serious crash, and the key's choice follows.

• 'Nasty' means unpleasant, and of an injury or accident it means severe.
• 'Heinous' means utterly wicked and is used of deliberate crimes.
• 'Outrageous' means shockingly offensive or unacceptable and is used of behaviour.
• 'Ghastly' means causing horror; in accident reports it points to death or serious injury.

• Reaching for the most dramatic adjective when the sentence only reports property damage.
• Applying a word of moral condemnation to an event that nobody intended.

Asked as a one-blank sentence where all four options are strongly negative and the deciding factor is what each one implies about intention and about harm.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word that best completes the sentence — The court described the killing as a ________ crime.

  • (a)nasty
  • (b)heinous
  • (c)clumsy
  • (d)hasty

  Answer(b) heinous — it means utterly wicked and is the standard word for a grave deliberate crime.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The word 'outrageous' is most appropriately used to describe

  • (a)a mild headache
  • (b)a shockingly unacceptable demand
  • (c)a quiet evening
  • (d)a well-kept garden

  Answer(b) a shockingly unacceptable demand — outrageous condemns conduct that offends ordinary standards.