Select the most appropriate synonym for the underlined word in the given sentence. It was his decency that he employed him.

Correct — B. Decency is polite, considerate, respectable conduct — the quality that makes a person treat others properly.

Courtesy names that same quality: politeness shown in behaviour. Put it in and the line keeps its sense — it was his courtesy that he employed him.

The sentence also fixes the charge. Employing the man is offered as something to his credit, so the tested word must be praise — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Deception — Deception is deliberate misleading. It opens with the same letters as decency and is the look-alike planted here, but the two words are unrelated in sense and opposite in charge.
• (c)
  Rudeness — Rudeness is bad manners, the direct opposite of decency. It would turn a sentence that credits the man into one that blames him.
• (d)
  Perversion — Perversion is a distortion of what is right or normal. It condemns, and this sentence praises.

Decency describes conduct that meets an accepted standard of politeness and fairness. Courtesy is the narrower word for the politeness itself, and it is the option that matches decency's positive core.

When the tested word sits inside a sentence, use the sentence twice. Once for the charge of the word — is the person being praised or blamed? Once for the substitution test — put the option in and read the line.

Here the charge alone removes three of the four options, because one word is a compliment and the rest are condemnations.

Key facts

• Decency is behaviour that is polite, considerate and in keeping with accepted standards.
• Courtesy means politeness shown in behaviour, and is a standard synonym of decency.
• Deception, from deceive, means deliberate misleading and shares only its opening letters with decency.

Common traps

• Picking Deception on the strength of the shared opening letters.
• Reading decency as a moral word only, and looking for virtue rather than manners.
• Over-reading the awkward sentence instead of testing each option in it.

No directly related past PYQ was found.