Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined word in the given sentence. Bankrupts are those who are incapable to pay their debts.

Correct — B. The word under test is incapable, and the item wants a substitute that keeps its sense: not able to do the thing.

Incompetent carries exactly that — lacking the ability or the standing to act. A bankrupt is defined by being unable to meet debts, so the meaning survives the swap.

None of the other three keeps the sense: one reverses it, and two describe something other than ability. That leaves option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  capable — Capable reverses the sentence. It would define bankrupts as people who are able to pay their debts, which is the one thing a bankrupt cannot do.
• (c)
  powerful — Powerful describes strength or influence, not the ability to settle a debt. It leaves the sentence saying that bankrupts are strong.
• (d)
  meagre — Meagre means scanty or inadequate in quantity and describes an amount, not a person's capacity, so meagre to pay is not English.

A substitution item asks for the word that can stand in the same slot with the same meaning. Read it as a test of sense.

Incapable and incompetent share that sense of lacking ability. Incompetent also carries a narrower use — not qualified, not up to the job — but the shared core is what the item is after.

The grammar around the word decides nothing here. The sentence as printed reads incapable to pay, which is not standard English, and no option on offer repairs it. Choose on meaning.

Key facts

• Incapable is normally followed by of plus an -ing form: incapable of paying.
• Incompetent means lacking the ability or the qualification to do something.
• Both adjectives share the sense of lacking ability, which is why one can substitute for the other here.

Common traps

• Grabbing capable because it looks closest to incapable, and inverting the sense of the sentence.
• Rejecting incompetent because you read it only as bad at a job, when it also means lacking the ability to act.

No directly related past PYQ was found.