‘Dissent’ and ‘Descent’
- (a)‘Dissent’ means having ideas different from general beliefs or official position, and ‘descent’ means movement towards a lower place
- (b)‘Dissent’ means having ideas different from general beliefs or official position, and ‘descent’ means being of acceptable standard
- (c)‘Dissent’ means being of acceptable standard, and ‘descent’ means movement towards a lower place
- (d)‘Dissent’ means being of acceptable standard, and ‘descent’ means ideas different from general beliefs or official position
Correct — A, ‘Dissent’ means having ideas different from general beliefs or official position, and ‘descent’ means movement towards a lower place. Dissent is disagreement, which is why a judge who refuses to join the majority writes a dissenting opinion. Descent is a going down, whether an aircraft losing height or a person tracing descent from a family line.
- (b)‘Dissent’ means having ideas different from general beliefs or official position, and ‘descent’ means being of acceptable standard — Being of acceptable standard is the meaning of a third word in this family, decent, which the option quietly substitutes for descent.
- (c)‘Dissent’ means being of acceptable standard, and ‘descent’ means movement towards a lower place — Here it is dissent that is handed decent's meaning, so only the second half of the option survives.
- (d)‘Dissent’ means being of acceptable standard, and ‘descent’ means ideas different from general beliefs or official position — Both halves are misplaced — decent's meaning goes to dissent, and dissent's meaning goes to descent.
Three words crowd this sound in English: dissent (disagreement), descent (a going down, or ancestry) and decent (satisfactory). The booklet prints only two of them, and every wrong option is built out of the third.
Spelling carries the meaning here, so read the first three letters. Dissent opens with dis- as in disagree, descent opens with de- as in descend, and decent has neither prefix. That alone sorts the four options without any dictionary work.
- Descend gives the noun descent, which covers both a downward movement and a person's ancestry.
- Dissent works as both noun and verb, and its most formal use in India is the dissenting judgment in a court.
- Decent is an adjective that never appears in the printed pair, yet three of the four options lean on its meaning.
- Choosing an option because it contains the familiar word decent.
- Writing descent where the sentence is about disagreement.
Asked as a paired-words item — pick the option that defines both spellings correctly.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill in the blank with the correct word. The pilot announced that the aircraft had begun its __________.
- (a)dissent
- (b)descent
- (c)decent
- (d)dissenting
Answer(b) descent — the downward movement.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the option that gives the correct meaning of ‘Council’ and ‘Counsel’.
- (a)‘Council’ means an assembly of people, and ‘counsel’ means advice
- (b)‘Council’ means advice, and ‘counsel’ means an assembly of people
- (c)‘Council’ means an assembly of people, and ‘counsel’ means a written order
- (d)‘Council’ means a written order, and ‘counsel’ means an assembly of people
Answer(a) ‘Council’ means an assembly of people, and ‘counsel’ means advice, or the lawyer who gives it.