Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'A person who is indifferent to pain or pleasure'.

Correct — B.
The definition names both sides: indifferent to pain or pleasure.

A stoic bears pain without complaint and is not carried away by pleasure, meeting both with the same calm. That two-sided indifference is exactly what the word means.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Apathetic — Apathetic means lacking interest, enthusiasm or concern in general. It describes not caring about things, not the calm endurance of pain and pleasure the stem describes.
• (c)
  Ascetic — Ascetic is a person who renounces pleasure through strict self-denial. The ascetic rejects pleasure on purpose; the stem describes someone unmoved by it.
• (d)
  Hedonist — Hedonist is a person who pursues pleasure as the chief good in life, the opposite of being indifferent to it.

The options circle pain and pleasure. A hedonist pursues pleasure. An ascetic renounces it. An apathetic person lacks interest in general. A stoic endures pain and takes pleasure without being moved by either.

The word comes from the Stoa, the painted porch in Athens where Zeno of Citium taught around 300 BC. His school held that the wise should be unmoved by joy or grief.

Key facts

• Stoic: a person who endures pain or hardship without showing feeling or complaining.
• Ascetic: a person who practises severe self-discipline and abstains from indulgence.
• Hedonist: a person who believes pleasure is the highest good.
• Stoic comes from the Stoa Poikile, the Painted Porch in Athens, where Zeno of Citium taught.

Common traps

• Choosing ascetic because both words involve hardship — the ascetic seeks it out, the stoic simply bears it.
• Choosing apathetic because 'indifferent' sounds like 'uninterested' — the stem's indifference is to pain and pleasure, not to the world at large.

No directly related past PYQ was found.