Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined word in the given sentence. I saw a shabby looking man living in the cavity of a mountain.

Correct — D. A cavity is a hollow space enclosed by something solid, so the plain word that can stand in its place is hole.

The sentence fixes this for you: the man is living in the cavity of a mountain. Only an empty space can be lived in.

Height, elevation and mound all name raised ground or upward measure — what a mountain is, not what it contains. Option (d) is the substitute.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  height — Height is a measurement, the distance from base to top. You can climb to the height of a mountain, but nobody lives inside a measurement.
• (b)
  elevation — Elevation means raised height, or a place that rises above its surroundings. It points up the mountain, while cavity points into it.
• (c)
  mound — A mound is a small heap of earth or stones — solid matter piled up. It is the opposite of a space hollowed out.

Substitution items test the sense a word carries inside its sentence, not a dictionary line learnt on its own.

Cavity keeps one sense wherever it appears: an empty space inside a solid body. A tooth cavity, the chest cavity, a cavity wall.

So its substitute must also be a word for empty space. Three options here belong to the opposite family, words for solid height, and they look plausible only because the sentence mentions a mountain.

Key facts

• Cavity means an empty space inside a solid body, as in a tooth cavity or the chest cavity.
• Elevation and height both name upward extent, never an opening.
• A mound is a raised heap of earth, the opposite of a hollow.

Common traps

• Reading cavity as something about the mountain's size because the sentence is about a mountain
• Choosing mound because it is the one landform word among the options

No directly related past PYQ was found.