The confusion on the interlocutor’s face was gratifying.

government officer. This is the news-report use of the word, in which an interlocutor is an official appointed to hold talks, but the word itself covers anyone who is in the conversation.

party worker. A party worker is a political label and says nothing about taking part in a conversation.

revolutionary. A revolutionary is someone who seeks radical political change, again a political label with no link to conversation.

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NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 7 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

The confusion on the <u>interlocutor’s</u> face was gratifying.

Q: What is the answer to NDA (I) 2018 GAT Q7?

C. Correct: C, 'dialogist'. An interlocutor is a person taking part in a conversation, and a dialogist is one of the speakers in a dialogue; that is the only option naming a role in a conversation rather than a job or a political label.

(a)government officer
(b)party worker
(c)dialogist
(d)revolutionary

Answer

Why

Correct: C, 'dialogist'. An interlocutor is a person taking part in a conversation, and a dialogist is one of the speakers in a dialogue; that is the only option naming a role in a conversation rather than a job or a political label.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
government officer: This is the news-report use of the word, in which an interlocutor is an official appointed to hold talks, but the word itself covers anyone who is in the conversation.
(b)
party worker: A party worker is a political label and says nothing about taking part in a conversation.
(d)
revolutionary: A revolutionary is someone who seeks radical political change, again a political label with no link to conversation.

Concept

Interlocutor comes from Latin inter- 'between' and loqui 'to speak' (the person one is speaking with) and 'dialogist' is the matching word for a participant in a dialogue.

Option (a) is where Indian candidates are most likely to slip, because newspapers here use 'interlocutor' for an official appointed to hold talks with a group. That is a use of the word, not its meaning. Reading the root (loqui, to speak) settles it. The underline covers the possessive form while the options are in the plain form, which does not change the choice.

Key facts

The root loqui gives English loquacious, eloquent, elocution, soliloquy and colloquial.
A dialogue needs at least two speakers, while a monologue has one.
'Gratifying' in the sentence means pleasing or satisfying, which tells you the speaker enjoyed the other person's confusion.

Study next

Latin roots that unlock unfamiliar wordsWords for people in a conversation: interlocutor, addressee, respondentNewspaper senses of words against dictionary meaningsPossessive forms of nouns ending in -or

Common traps

Choosing 'government officer' from the way the word is used in news reports.
Guessing from the political flavour of the sentence rather than from the word's root.

Asked as a synonym item: choose the word closest in meaning to the underlined word.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice, not a real PYQ
Choose the word closest in meaning to 'loquacious'.
- (a)silent
- (b)talkative
- (c)local
- (d)logical
Answer(b) talkative: the root loqui means to speak.
practice, not a real PYQ
A speech in which a character speaks alone is called a
- (a)dialogue
- (b)monologue
- (c)epilogue
- (d)prologue
Answer(b) monologue: mono- is one, and -logue is speech.

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