NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 37 of 146

Correct — A, ability to speak easily and confidently. 'Gab' is an old word for chatter or idle talk, so someone with the gift of the gab has a natural talent for talking, fluent and ready and persuasive, whether or not there is much substance behind it.

• (b)ability to spoil something — Nothing in the phrase suggests damage. The option trades on 'gab' looking unfamiliar and therefore possibly sinister.
• (c)ability to sell things — A fluent talker often does sell well, but the phrase names the fluency itself, not the occupation it might suit.
• (d)gift from a sacred institution — This reads 'gift' literally as a present and invents a religious source for it. In the phrase, 'gift' means a natural talent.

An idiom item on 'the gift of the gab', a talent for ready and persuasive speech.

Two of the wrong options work by taking one word of the phrase literally, 'gift' as a present in option (d) and an invented sense of 'gab' in option (b). The useful habit with an unfamiliar idiom is to identify the one word you do not know and work outward from the rest, and here 'gab' simply means chatter.

• The noun 'gab' means idle chatter, and the verb 'to gab' means to talk a great deal, usually about trivial things.
• Because 'gab' suggests trivial talk, the phrase can be mildly disapproving, since it praises fluency rather than depth.

• Guessing at the whole phrase instead of identifying the single unfamiliar word inside it.

Asked as an idiom item in which the phrase contains one uncommon word that carries its whole meaning.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the meaning of the phrase — <u>beat about the bush</u>

  • (a)to search thoroughly
  • (b)to avoid coming to the point
  • (c)to attack someone verbally
  • (d)to work in a garden

  Answer(b) to avoid coming to the point.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the meaning of the phrase — <u>to talk shop</u>

  • (a)to bargain over a price
  • (b)to talk about one's work in company
  • (c)to run a business
  • (d)to gossip about neighbours

  Answer(b) to talk about one's work in company.