‘Metal’ and ‘Mettle’
- (a)‘Metal’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor, and ‘mettle’ means malleable metal.
- (b)‘Metal’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor, and ‘mettle’ means metallic substance.
- (c)‘Metal’ means mental resilience, and ‘mettle’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor.
- (d)‘Metal’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor, and ‘mettle’ means mental resilience.
Correct — D, the option that gives 'metal' as a hard shiny material that conducts well and 'mettle' as mental resilience. Both halves are right: metals such as iron, copper and aluminium conduct heat and electricity, while 'mettle' names a person's spirit and staying power, as in the phrase 'she proved her mettle'.
- (a)‘Metal’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor, and ‘mettle’ means malleable metal. — Its first half is right, but 'mettle' is never a kind of metal. Malleability is a property of metals, so this option leaves both words in the same field.
- (b)‘Metal’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor, and ‘mettle’ means metallic substance. — The same fault as in (a): 'metallic substance' merely repeats 'metal' and leaves 'mettle', the word for courage and endurance, undefined.
- (c)‘Metal’ means mental resilience, and ‘mettle’ is a hard shiny material that is a good conductor. — The two glosses are swapped. Mental resilience is 'mettle', and the conducting material is 'metal'.
'Mettle' began as a figurative use of 'metal' — the stuff a person is made of — and the two spellings later parted, leaving 'metal' for the material and 'mettle' for spirit, courage and stamina.
Two options here fail in the same way: they define 'metal' correctly and then define 'mettle' as another word for metal, which leaves the pair undistinguished. That is exactly what this section refuses to allow — an option earns the mark only when it separates the two words, so any gloss that keeps both in one field is out before its wording is even weighed.
- 'Mettle' appears most often in 'to prove one's mettle' and 'to be put on one's mettle'.
- 'Metal' is the material, and its adjective is 'metallic'.
- The two spellings were once variants of a single word; the split into material and spirit came later.
- Accepting an option whose second half only rewords the first.
- Reading 'mettle' as a technical term from metallurgy.
Asked as a paired-words item where two options define one word twice instead of defining both.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct sentence.
- (a)The young officer proved his metal in the field.
- (b)The young officer proved his mettle in the field.
- (c)Copper conducts well because it is a mettle.
- (d)Her mettle bangles turned green.
Answer(b) The young officer proved his mettle in the field — mettle is spirit and endurance.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill in the blank. Tungsten is a __________ with a very high melting point.
- (a)mettle
- (b)metal
- (c)medal
- (d)meddle
Answer(b) metal — the material; a medal is an award and to meddle is to interfere.