Learning from the school of hard knocks

Correct — D, Learning things through difficult experiences. 'The school of hard knocks' is the practical education a person gains from tough, often painful, real-life experiences rather than from formal teaching, so option (d) captures its meaning exactly.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Learning things from experience — This is too broad — the idiom stresses hard, difficult experience, not experience in general, so it drops the very word ('hard knocks') that carries the meaning.
• (b)
  Learning things from others — The idiom is about what life's setbacks teach you first-hand, not about being taught by other people.
• (c)
  Learning things from environment — 'Environment' is unrelated; the phrase points to hardship and adversity, not surroundings.

An idiom-meaning item — 'the school of hard knocks' means the lessons learnt the hard way, through difficult or painful experience rather than formal education.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the meaning of the idiom 'learn the ropes'.

  • (a)to tie knots
  • (b)to learn how to do a job or task
  • (c)to climb quickly
  • (d)to escape danger
  Answer(b) to learn how to do a job or task — 'learn the ropes' means to become familiar with the way something is done.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the meaning of the idiom 'a hard nut to crack'.

  • (a)a tasty snack
  • (b)an easy question
  • (c)a difficult problem or person
  • (d)a broken tool
  Answer(c) a difficult problem or person — something or someone hard to deal with or understand.