a day of bloodshed and violence

NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q36: A red-letter

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q36?

B. Correct — B, a very important or significant day. A red-letter day is one that stands out from the ordinary run of days because something notable or worth celebrating happened on it. The origin is literal — calendars marked important dates, church feast days in particular, in red, so a day picked out in red was a day that mattered.

NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 36 of 146

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

A red-letter day

(a)a trivial day
(b)a very important or significant day
(c)a day of bloodshed and violence
(d)a mourning day

Answer

Why

Correct — B, a very important or significant day. A red-letter day is one that stands out from the ordinary run of days because something notable or worth celebrating happened on it. The origin is literal — calendars marked important dates, church feast days in particular, in red, so a day picked out in red was a day that mattered.

Why the others are wrong

(a)a trivial day — This is the exact reverse, since the whole point of the red marking was to lift a day out of the ordinary.
(c)a day of bloodshed and violence — This reads the red as blood, which is the trap the option is built on. The red in the phrase is printer's ink on a calendar, not a colour of violence.
(d)a mourning day — Mourning is conventionally associated with black rather than red, and the phrase is used for occasions worth celebrating.

Concept

An idiom item on 'a red-letter day', meaning a specially memorable or important day.

Colour idioms invite a literal guess, and both of the serious wrong options here are literal guesses about the colour red. The safer method is to recall an actual sentence in which you have met the phrase, such as 'the day she got her commission was a red-letter day for the family', and then read the options against it.

Key facts

The phrase records an old printing practice, in which significant days, and church feast days above all, were marked in red on calendars.
It is used of happy or important occasions, and it takes possessive phrases naturally, as in 'a red-letter day for Indian hockey'.

Study next

Colour idioms — in the red, a white elephant, once in a blue moon, caught red-handedIdioms whose origin is literal and still visible in the words themselvesTesting an idiom by recalling a sentence you have actually met it in

Common traps

Reading a colour idiom literally, which is exactly what both wrong colour options here reward.

Asked as an idiom item in which the wrong options are literal readings of one word in the phrase.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the phrase — caught red-handed
- (a)caught while committing the act
- (b)caught with an injury
- (c)caught after a long chase
- (d)caught by mistake
Answer(a) caught while committing the act — caught in the very act, with the evidence still on you.
practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the phrase — a white elephant
- (a)a rare and lucky animal
- (b)a costly possession that is more trouble than it is worth
- (c)a much-loved gift
- (d)a symbol of purity
Answer(b) a costly possession that is more trouble than it is worth.