Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom. To read between the lines

Correct — C. To read between the lines is to pick up what a text implies but never states outright.

The idiom names an act of inference, not an act of reading. Told to read between the lines of a polite email, you are being told to look past the wording for the message underneath.

That is exactly what option (c) describes: understanding more than what the words suggest.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  To read aloud to public — To read aloud to public takes the word lines literally and turns the idiom into recitation. Reading between the lines is silent work and says nothing about an audience.
• (b)
  To read differently — To read differently names a change of manner, not a change of meaning. The idiom is about the unstated meaning you arrive at, not about reading faster, slower or in another way.
• (d)
  To underline some words — To underline some words is a physical act on the page. What the idiom describes happens in the reader's head — inference, not annotation.

SSC idiom items reward the figurative sense, and the wrong options are usually assembled from the idiom's literal words.

The literal words here are read and lines, so the paper offers reading aloud, reading differently and underlining. All three keep you on the page.

The idiom is not about the page at all. It is about what the reader infers — the meaning the writer implied without putting it in words.

Key facts

• To read between the lines means to grasp a meaning that is implied but not stated.
• The idiom describes inference by the reader, not a change in how the text is read.
• In this item all three wrong options describe a literal act of reading.

Common traps

• Choosing the option that echoes the idiom's literal words
• Reading the idiom as a comment on how fast or how loudly something is read

No directly related past PYQ was found.