<u>To fish in troubled waters</u>
- (a)to borrow money
- (b)to steal belongings of
- (c)to get benefit in bad situation
- (d)to extend a helping hand
Correct — C, to get benefit in bad situation. To fish in troubled waters is to take advantage of a spell of confusion, disorder or quarrelling in order to gain something for oneself, and often to stir the trouble further, because the disorder is what makes the gain possible.
- (a)to borrow money — Borrowing has nothing to do with the image. A person in difficulty may borrow, but the idiom describes someone profiting from difficulty rather than suffering it.
- (b)to steal belongings of — Printed just so in the paper, this option trails off without an object. Even completed, theft would be too narrow, since the idiom covers any self-serving gain from disorder and need not involve taking property at all.
- (d)to extend a helping hand — This is the opposite. The person fishing in troubled waters is serving themselves, not helping anyone caught in the trouble.
An idiom item on 'to fish in troubled waters', meaning to exploit a disturbed situation for one's own gain.
The idiom is disapproving, and that is the fastest route to the answer, because the two options describing innocent or generous behaviour can go at once. Between the remaining two, the phrase names a motive rather than a particular crime, so the broader option is the right one. Note also that option (b) is printed incomplete in the paper, as 'to steal belongings of', and it is reproduced above exactly as printed.
- Read literally, the phrase pictures someone fishing in water that has been stirred up and clouded, and it is the disturbance that makes the catch possible.
- It is most often applied to politics and rivalry, as in 'accused of fishing in troubled waters after the split in the party'.
- Reading the idiom literally as an act of theft or of charity rather than as a description of motive.
Asked as an idiom item in which the correct option states a general motive and the wrong ones name specific literal acts.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the phrase — <u>a fish out of water</u>
- (a)someone who cannot swim
- (b)someone uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings
- (c)someone who is very thirsty
- (d)someone who has been left behind
Answer(b) someone uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the phrase — <u>to add fuel to the fire</u>
- (a)to settle a quarrel
- (b)to make a bad situation worse
- (c)to work harder
- (d)to warn of danger
Answer(b) to make a bad situation worse.