Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. A thing that can be easily carried by hands

Correct — B. Portable is Latin portare, to carry, plus -able, able to be. It means capable of being carried, which is what the stem describes: a thing that can be easily carried by hands.

Option (b) is the only choice that names a quality of the thing itself. Import and export are built on the same portare root, but they name acts of trade, and potable comes from a different root altogether.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Import — Import means bringing goods into a country, or the sense a word carries. It names a transaction, not a property of an object that can be picked up.
• (c)
  Potable — Potable means fit to drink, from Latin potare, to drink. One letter apart from the answer on the page and a whole root apart in meaning.
• (d)
  Export — Export means sending goods out of a country. It shares portare with the answer, but it names something people do rather than a quality the object has.

One-word substitution rewards roots. Read the phrase for its core idea, then find the option whose root carries that idea.

The core idea here is carrying, and Latin portare is the carrying root: portable, porter, transport, import and export all descend from it.

The suffix decides the rest. -able turns the root into a quality of the thing — able to be carried — which is what the stem asks for, while the in- and ex- prefixes turn it into directions of trade.

Key facts

• Portable comes from Latin portare, to carry, and means capable of being carried.
• Potable comes from Latin potare, to drink, and means fit to drink.
• The suffix -able turns a verb root into an adjective meaning able to be done to.
• Import and export are built on the same portare root, with in- and ex- supplying direction.

Common traps

• Reading potable as a typo for portable and marking it
• Choosing import or export because both feel like carrying words

No directly related past PYQ was found.