To sit on the fence
- (a)to act promptly
- (b)to be lazy
- (c)to be undecided
- (d)to sit without doing anything
Answer
C
Why
Correct — C, 'to be undecided.' To 'sit on the fence' is to avoid choosing between two sides of an argument — to remain undecided or neutral — option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)to act promptly — This is the opposite — sitting on the fence means delaying a choice, not acting quickly.
- (b)to be lazy — The idiom is about avoiding a decision, not about laziness.
- (d)to sit without doing anything — A near-literal reading; the idiom specifically means refusing to take sides, not mere idleness.
Concept
To 'sit on the fence' is to avoid committing to either side of an argument or choice — to stay undecided or neutral.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the idiom 'to be non-committal'.
- (a)to avoid giving a definite answer
- (b)to promise firmly
- (c)to refuse loudly
- (d)to agree at once
Answer(a) to avoid giving a definite answer — the same 'undecided' stance as sitting on the fence.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the idiom 'to blow hot and cold'.
- (a)to keep changing one's opinion
- (b)to control the weather
- (c)to work very hard
- (d)to speak angrily
Answer(a) to keep changing one's opinion — indecision, akin to sitting on the fence.