The one rule that governs everything here
Ornament loses marks. Precision wins them. Examiners reward clarity and economy and penalise decoration. Wordcraft never teaches a word so you can sound impressive. It teaches the word that is exactly right, the pair you must never swap, the verb a noun takes, and the fifteen words you can delete.
Glossary from the edition
18 words, each quoted in the sentence where it appeared in the 31 August 2026 edition. Meaning first, then the sentence, then where it came from.
Framed so that no possible evidence could prove it wrong. From Karl Popper’s test of science: a claim is scientific only if some observation could falsify it. An unfalsifiable charge is one that survives every answer, which is why calling a charge unfalsifiable is a criticism of the charge, not a defence of the accused.
हिंदी: जिसे किसी प्रमाण से ग़लत सिद्ध न किया जा सके
Independent review is the correct instrument and it returned a finding; refusing to accept any exoneration makes governance an unfalsifiable charge.
From Permissible Is Not the Same as Worthy: The HDFC Bank Governance Test · Today’s "from the edition" lesson grows from this word.
In due proportion to something else; neither excessive nor token. In law, a penalty is proportionate when its weight matches the wrong. The noun is proportionality, a doctrine courts apply to state action limiting rights.
हिंदी: अनुपात के अनुरूप; न कम, न अधिक
Proportionate penalties for conduct without mala fide intent are what a mature framework looks like, and the bank’s operating record remains the sector’s reference point.
From Permissible Is Not the Same as Worthy: The HDFC Bank Governance Test · Proportionality is the four-step test Indian courts adopted in Puttaswamy; the word earns marks in GS2 as well as GS4.
Self-satisfied unconcern, especially when danger is near. The adjective is complacent. Do not confuse with complaisant, an older word meaning eager to please others.
हिंदी: आत्मसंतोष; ख़तरे के प्रति लापरवाह निश्चिंतता
For GS4, the compliance-versus-worthiness distinction is a ready-made ethics scaffold: it is the corporate version of the law-versus-conscience question, and the piece’s observation that the real danger arrives when performance is strong and the board stops asking difficult questions is a one-line case study in moral complacency.
From Permissible Is Not the Same as Worthy: The HDFC Bank Governance Test
Literally, the year a wine was made. In statistics, a vintage of data is the version published at a particular time; later vintages revise earlier ones. Comparing figures across vintages is a standard methodological error.
हिंदी: किसी आँकड़े का संस्करण-वर्ष; किस समय का संकलन
An answer that compares this quarter’s first estimate against last year’s first estimate is comparing two different vintages of data.
From GDP Grows 7.8 Per Cent in Q1 FY27: The Number, the Revision Beneath It, and the Fiscal Backdrop · The 7.8-then-6.9 history of Q1 FY26 in today’s release is the worked example.
Arranged or accepted for the present, subject to later change. Official statistics are provisional until revised; a provisional government holds power until a permanent one is formed.
हिंदी: अनंतिम; बाद में संशोधन के अधीन
Quarterly national accounts are provisional: they are re-estimated as fuller data replaces the indicators used in the first pass.
From GDP Grows 7.8 Per Cent in Q1 FY27: The Number, the Revision Beneath It, and the Fiscal Backdrop
The authority to oversee, direct and control. A constitutional term of art in India: Article 324 vests superintendence of elections in the Election Commission, and Article 243ZA does the same for municipal polls with the State Election Commissions.
हिंदी: अधीक्षण; निगरानी और नियंत्रण का अधिकार
Article 243ZA vests superintendence of municipal elections in the State Election Commission.
From Current Affairs Today, August 31, 2026, Complete News Roundup · The verb it takes is vests: superintendence is vested in a body.
The state of moving apart or differing, of numbers, opinions or paths. The verb is diverge; its opposite is converge. In data reporting, a divergence between credible sources is information about what each source measures.
हिंदी: अंतर बढ़ते जाना; आँकड़ों या मतों का अलग होना
Read the divergence as information, not as noise.
From Current Affairs Today, August 31, 2026, Complete News Roundup · Said of Nepal’s casualty bulletins, which differed by 228 on the same day because they counted different things.
The act of removing someone from employment, or of rejecting a case or an idea. Employment law hangs its protections on the moment of dismissal, which is precisely what platform work is designed never to produce.
हिंदी: सेवा से हटाया जाना; बर्ख़ास्तगी
The moment of dismissal, the event on which the whole of labour law hangs, never occurs.
From The Algorithm at the Society Gate: What Gig Work Has Done to Labour · From Latin mittere, to send: today’s root lesson. To dismiss is literally to send away.
Not able to be seen through, literally of glass, figuratively of processes and institutions. An opaque algorithm is one whose reasons cannot be inspected. The noun is opacity; the opposite is transparent.
हिंदी: अपारदर्शी; जिसकी भीतरी कार्यविधि दिखाई न दे
The piece’s claim is that they are its illusion: the personal cord between employer and employee has been severed, and labour management has been hijacked by opaque algorithms.
From The Algorithm at the Society Gate: What Gig Work Has Done to Labour
In biology, restricted by nature to one condition of life: an obligate open-habitat species cannot survive outside open country, an obligate parasite cannot live free. Note the stress and vowel: the adjective is OB-li-gət, the verb obligate (to bind legally) is OB-li-gayt. The looser opposite is facultative.
हिंदी: बाध्य; जो केवल एक ही दशा में जी सके (जीवविज्ञान)
The sharper fact this piece supplies is that afforestation itself threatens the bustard, because the bird is an obligate open-habitat species.
From Not Wasteland: India Finally Names Its Open Natural Ecosystems · One precise adjective explains why planting trees can endanger the Great Indian Bustard.
Careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care, land, resources, institutions. A steward manages what he does not own; the word carries duty without ownership, which is exactly its force in environmental writing.
हिंदी: संरक्षक की तरह देखभाल; न्यासधारिता
Formal land administration has often recorded that stewardship as encroachment.
From Not Wasteland: India Finally Names Its Open Natural Ecosystems · The sentence’s whole argument is in the gap between the two nouns: stewardship and encroachment describe the same act from opposite sides of the record book.
The quantity of a product actually taken up by buyers or users; the demand side of a supply system. Indian policy English uses it for everything from foodgrain to power: an offtake agreement guarantees a buyer before capacity is built.
हिंदी: उत्पादित वस्तु का उठाव; खपत-पक्ष
India has spent a decade constructing sewage treatment capacity under AMRUT and Namami Gange; the gap is no longer treatment, it is offtake.
From Apna Jal: The Water India Already Has and Refuses to Use
The act of coming together at a point. In Indian administrative English, convergence is a term of art: funding an objective by aligning schemes that already exist rather than creating a new budget line. The opposite motion is divergence, also in today’s glossary.
हिंदी: योजनाओं का संगम; एक बिंदु पर मिलना
That is a convergence argument, and it is far more implementable than another demand for outlay.
From Apna Jal: The Water India Already Has and Refuses to Use · Scheme convergence is a standing Mains keyword; here it appears in its exact administrative sense.
To accept something without protest, and so, in law and diplomacy, to be treated as having agreed. It takes in (to acquiesce in a decision); the noun is acquiescence. Weaker than consent, stronger than silence.
हिंदी: चुपचाप मान लेना; बिना विरोध स्वीकार करना
A state that acquiesces in interpretive expansion invites more of it.
From Malicious, or Merely Unwelcome? India and the Treaty Body It Just Dismissed · Note the preposition: acquiesce in, not acquiesce to, in careful usage.
The authority to decide, and the territory or subject matter over which that authority runs. Latin jus law + dicere to say: the power to speak the law. A regulator without jurisdiction can only request; the instrument becomes diplomatic.
हिंदी: क्षेत्राधिकार; निर्णय लेने की वैधानिक सीमा
Who has jurisdiction over the source of the hazard? If the answer is another state, the instrument is diplomatic, not regulatory, and the answer must switch registers.
From The Himalaya Serves Another Warning, and India Cannot Hear It
Lack of balance between two sides of a relationship or design. A policy asymmetry is a rule that binds in one direction only: today’s example is a fuel obligation that stands firm while the crop it draws on fluctuates.
हिंदी: विषमता; दोनों पक्षों पर असमान प्रभाव
That asymmetry is the structural fault, and it is invisible until a bad year arrives.
From From Plate to Plough: When the Fuel Tank Bids Against the Kitchen
The delay between a cause and its effect. Borrowed into policy writing from engineering: policy latency is the time an instrument takes to act, refined sugar imports reach shelves in weeks, raw sugar in months. The adjective is latent, hidden or dormant.
हिंदी: प्रभाव में देरी; नीति और परिणाम के बीच का अंतराल
That is a technical observation about policy latency, and it is the kind of detail that lifts an answer above the general.
From From Plate to Plough: When the Fuel Tank Bids Against the Kitchen
A toothed mechanism that turns in one direction only. As a metaphor, an arrangement that can rise but never fall: a ratchet effect. Its opposite in policy prose is an adjustable dial. The verb exists too: costs ratchet up.
हिंदी: एक ही दिशा में बढ़ने वाला तंत्र; जो पीछे न लौटे
Both treat the blending rate as an adjustable dial rather than a ratchet, which is the deepest break with current policy in the piece.
From From Plate to Plough: When the Fuel Tank Bids Against the Kitchen · The Paris Agreement’s no-backsliding rule for NDCs is called a ratchet mechanism: the same image, in a treaty.
The seven lessons
One entry of each type, every day: a system, not a word list.
1 · Root & family
mittere
Latin · "to send, to let go" · past stem miss-
One Latin verb, two stems (mitt- and miss-), and today’s edition uses its children in four different stories. Every member keeps the idea of sending: away, across, under, or on a task.
| Word | Literal build | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| dismiss | dis "away" | a person, sent away; hence dismissal, the event labour law hangs on |
| missile | "that which can be sent" | the FGM-148 Javelin in today’s roundup |
| mission | "a sending" | people sent with a task; hence missionary, and ISRO’s missions |
| transmission | trans "across" | a signal or warning, sent across; the Himalaya editorial’s "transmission gap" |
| commission | com "together" | people sent together with authority: the State Election Commission |
| submission | sub "under" | a document sent under someone’s judgement; NGO submissions to CERD |
| permissible | per "through" + -ible | what may be let through; today’s HDFC editorial turns on it |
| emissary | e "out" | a person sent out to speak for a state |
| remit | re "back" | money sent back (remittances); also, as a noun, the task assigned to a body |
| intermittent | inter "between" | a thing let go between pauses: an intermittent signal |
The double consonant discipline
The present stem doubles the t (committee, remitting, transmitting); the past stem doubles the s (mission, permission, dismissal). English keeps both spellings faithfully, so omit gives omission with one m and two s's, and commit gives commission with two of each. Spell from the stem and the doubling takes care of itself.
The trap in the family
Remit the noun and remit the verb have drifted apart. A body’s remit (REE-mit) is its assigned scope: "outside the commission’s remit". To remit (ri-MIT) money is to send it back or across; to remit a sentence is to reduce it, which is why remission belongs to both prisons and diseases.
Spelling across varieties
No variation anywhere in the family; British, American and Indian English agree letter for letter. Only emissary shifts its stress in some American speech (EM-ə-sair-ee against British EM-i-sər-ee).
Harvested from four of today’s pieces at once: dismissal in the gig-work editorial, the Javelin missile in the roundup, the "transmission gap" in the Himalaya editorial, and permissible in the HDFC governance editorial. The rest of the family is added from the root, not from the edition.
2 · Confusable pair
imply / infer
the speaker folds in; the listener draws out
The discriminating test
Ask who is doing it. The source implies; the receiver infers. A speaker can never infer his own hint, and a listener can never imply someone else’s. If the subject of your sentence is the evidence, the report, the data: imply. If it is the reader, the court, the analyst: infer.
Why the pair matters doubly for this exam
CSAT reading comprehension lives on this verb: "What can be inferred from the passage?" asks what the passage folded in that you can draw out, never what it stated. Writing "the passage infers" in an answer is the error examiners see most; a passage can only imply.
The nouns
Implication is what was folded in; inference is what you drew out. Both are legitimate, and a careful sentence can hold both: the implication of the data supports no stronger inference than this.
Across varieties
British, American and Indian English all maintain the distinction in careful writing, and all three blur it in casual speech ("Are you inferring I’m wrong?"). The exam register is careful writing; keep them apart.
Harvested from today’s GDP article, which asks: "What does this imply for policy made on high-frequency data?" The data is the subject, so imply is exactly right.
3 · Collocation
The verbs of data
how numbers move in careful prose
Economy answers live or die on these verbs. Data does not "come"; growth does not "become more". Each indicator has verbs it takes, and today’s GDP edition uses nearly all of them within four articles.
| Noun | Takes | Never |
|---|---|---|
| data / an estimate | is released, published, revised (upward, downward) | |
| growth | accelerates, moderates, eases, slows, picks up | |
| a forecast | is beaten, exceeded, missed; the print comes in above / below it | |
| a target | is set, met, missed, overshot | |
| a deficit | narrows, widens; stands at a level | |
| prices | rise, spike, ease, harden, cool | |
| a base effect | flatters or depresses the current reading | |
| reserves / output | swell, climb, contract, shrink |
Why this matters beyond style
Each collocation encodes a fact about agency. Prices rise; only the government or a company hikes them: the verb tells the reader whether a decision was taken. A deficit narrows rather than "improves" because whether a smaller deficit is an improvement is precisely the argument, and the neutral verb keeps your description separate from your judgement. Growth is a rate, so it quickens or slows; output is a quantity, so it rises or falls. Mixing the two ("growth increased to 7.8") is the most common data-verb slip in aspirant prose.
The pair to master today
Revised upward against revised downward, and the vintage that goes with each: today’s release shows Q1 FY26 revised from 7.8 to 6.9 per cent, while June’s core sector reading was revised up from 5 to 6 per cent. One economy, both directions, five days apart.
Every starred verb appears in today’s economy coverage: GDP "grew 7.8 per cent... beating every major pre-release forecast", core sector growth "easing from 6 per cent in June (revised up from 5)", the deficit "stands at 26.8 per cent of the FY27 target", sugar prices that "rose sharply" and "eased once imports were announced" (GDP article, sugar article).
4 · From the edition
unfalsifiable
/ un-FOL-si-fy-ə-bəl /
Found in situ in today’s HDFC governance editorial: "refusing to accept any exoneration makes governance an unfalsifiable charge." A claim is unfalsifiable when it is framed so that no possible evidence could prove it wrong: every acquittal becomes proof of a cover-up, every review that clears becomes proof the review was captured.
The family, and where it comes from
To falsify a claim is to show it false; a claim is falsifiable if some observation could show it false. The philosopher Karl Popper made falsifiability the boundary of science: "all swans are white" is scientific because one black swan sinks it; a theory that absorbs every outcome explains nothing. The editorial imports the idea into governance: an accusation that survives every answer has stopped being an accusation and become a posture.
The near-neighbour trap
| Word | Means | Verdict on the claim |
|---|---|---|
| unfalsifiable | no evidence could disprove it | badly framed; untestable |
| irrefutable | the evidence for it is overwhelming | almost certainly true |
| unverifiable | no evidence available to confirm it | unknown; wait |
| unsubstantiated | asserted without supporting evidence | unproven as it stands |
The first and the second are near-opposites, and swapping them reverses a sentence’s meaning. Note that falsify also has an unrelated everyday sense, to fake ("falsified accounts"); context separates the philosopher’s sense from the forger’s.
Register
Essay and interview register. In a GS4 answer on accusations against an institution, or an essay on scientific temper (Article 51A(h) territory), the word does precise work. Use it of claims and charges, never of people.
Harvested from "Permissible Is Not the Same as Worthy", where the sceptics' case against endless scrutiny is exactly that a charge no exoneration can answer is unfalsifiable.
5 · Say it shorter
Untangling the of-string
the implementation of the recommendations of the committee
After zombie nouns, the second great inflater of aspirant prose is the of-string: nouns chained together with of until the sentence reads like a land record. Each of is grammatical; three in a row is a queue. The examples below are constructed in the register of official prose; they are not quotations from today’s edition.
The delay in the notification of the rules for the implementation of the provisions of the Code remains a concern.
After · 10 wordsThe Code’s implementing rules have still not been notified.
Same fact, half the words, and the agent (whoever must notify) is now askable.
The three repairs, in order of power
| Repair | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive | the decision of the Cabinet | the Cabinet’s decision |
| Free the verb | the utilisation of the funds by the states | how the states used the funds |
| Compound noun | the schedule of the elections to the bodies of local government | the local body election schedule |
When the of-string is right
Titles and terms of art keep their ofs: the Code on Social Security, the Doctrine of Basic Structure, Directive Principles of State Policy, economies of scale. These are names, not queues; compressing them changes what they refer to. The test: if the phrase is quotable as a unit, leave it; if you built it yourself, untangle it.
One honest caution
Possessives suit persons and institutions ("the Commission’s report") better than abstractions ("the situation’s gravity" reads oddly; keep "the gravity of the situation"). English gives inanimate abstractions the of-form by preference, so untangle greedily but reread once.
Prompted by the register of today’s fiscal and constitutional coverage (the GDP article must define "the excess of total expenditure over total receipts excluding borrowings", a term of art that rightly keeps its of-form). Knowing which of-strings are names and which are queues is the skill.
6 · Usage watch
avail · updation · the concerned officer
office English under exam light
Three habits of Indian official English that read differently outside the office. As always, no sneering: Indian English coins legitimately (prepone is in the OED, lakh and crore are exact), but these three cost precision, and precision is the currency of an answer.
| Watch | The slip | The repair |
|---|---|---|
| avail | "Farmers can avail themselves of the subsidy", or simply "can claim / use / take the subsidy". The plain verb is usually better. | |
| updation | "Updating of land records", or free the verb: "Land records have not been updated." | |
| concerned | "The officer concerned will reply", or "the officer responsible". Position changes meaning. |
The concerned trap, slowly
A concerned citizen is worried; the citizen concerned is the one in question. English does this with a small set of adjectives whose meaning shifts with position: the present members (here now) against the present arrangement (current); a responsible officer (trustworthy) against the officer responsible (who did it); involved explanations (complicated) against the people involved (participating).
What is not a slip
Lakh and crore are exact and expected in an Indian exam; convert only for international readers. Do the needful is legitimate office register, wrong register for an answer. And revert, discuss about and comprised of were Saturday’s watch; the habits travel in packs.
Across varieties
American and British English lack updation entirely and use avail oneself of only in formal prose. The positional rule for concerned holds in every variety, which is why getting it right is invisible and getting it wrong is not.
The harvest found no usage slip in the day’s own prose; today’s watch is drawn from the standing list. The edition does use concerned correctly in its post-position sense; the officer-concerned pattern is the one to copy.
7 · Idiom in formal register
on the table
idiom · and its treacherous cousin
From the negotiating room: what is on the table is open for discussion, formally offered, available to be agreed. Today’s Tashkent article uses it exactly: the 2019 uranium contract is running out, "which is the whole reason a successor arrangement is on the table". Its mirror, off the table, means withdrawn from consideration, and the pair does clean analytical work in IR writing: an offer, a demand or an option moves on and off the table.
The treacherous cousin
Saturday’s collocation lesson flagged the verb: in Indian and British English to table a bill is to put it forward; in American English to table a motion is to shelve it. The idiom on the table carries no such split: it means "open for discussion" in every major variety. So the noun phrase travels; the verb does not. If you write for a mixed readership, "on the table" is safe where "tabled" is ambiguous.
A second figure from today’s edition
A stress test, borrowed from engineering via banking, is a trial of how a system behaves under strain. Today’s sugar coverage calls the 2026 price episode the ethanol arrangement’s "first serious stress test". Post-2008 banking regulation made the term technical (the RBI stress-tests banks' balance sheets), so in an economics answer it is nearer a term of art than an idiom, which is what makes it safe.
The register rule, restated
One idiom per answer at most, only where it compresses an idea, never in the introduction. On the table earns its place when the fact it states is precisely that something is formally open: "statehood is on the table" says in five words what "the parties have agreed that the question of statehood is open for negotiation" says in fifteen.
Formal siblings
| Idiom | One step more formal |
|---|---|
| on the table | under negotiation · open for discussion · formally offered |
| off the table | ruled out · withdrawn from consideration |
| a stress test | a trial under adverse conditions (but the technical term is standard in economics) |
| on the cards | likely; in prospect |
| on the anvil | in preparation (Indian English favourite; British readers know it, Americans may not) |
Harvested from the Tashkent article ("a successor arrangement is on the table") and the sugar article, whose Mains frame calls the price episode a stress test of the food-fuel arrangement.
Worksheet
Every exercise from the session, on paper. Answers are folded under each one; the online session marks them for you and keeps your score.
Root & family · mittere
-
Pair each word with its literal sending.
- dismiss
- transmission
- submission
- emissary
- remittance
- commission
- people sent together with authority
- money sent back or home
- sent out to speak for a state
- sent under someone's judgement
- sent across
- sent away
Answer
- dismiss: sent away
- transmission: sent across
- submission: sent under someone's judgement
- emissary: sent out to speak for a state
- remittance: money sent back or home
- commission: people sent together with authority
Each prefix steers the sending: dis- away, trans- across, sub- under, e- out, re- back, com- together.
-
Which spelling is right?
- omission
- ommission
- omision
- ommision
Answer
omission. Omit has one m, so omission keeps one m; the past stem miss- supplies the double s.
-
Foreign ___ from Gulf workers are a mainstay of Kerala's economy.
- remittances
- remissions
- submissions
- emissions
Answer
remittances. Money sent back home: remittances. Remission reduces a sentence; emission sends out gases.
-
Regulating cryptocurrency lies outside the committee's ___.
- remit
- remission
- transmission
- dismissal
Answer
remit. A body’s remit is its assigned scope. REE-mit, noun.
-
The Himalaya editorial's "transmission gap" is a failure to:
- send hazard knowledge across to the people at risk
- broadcast television in the mountains
- transmit electricity to villages
- translate documents into Nepali
Answer
send hazard knowledge across to the people at risk. Trans- "across": the knowledge exists in institutions and fails to cross to the valley. The root tells you the metaphor.
-
Tap the wrong word. The court granted emission of the remaining sentence.
Answer
emission → remission. Remission (re- "back") reduces a sentence. Emission (e- "out") is what chimneys do.
-
The warning system worked only ___, failing exactly when the storm peaked.
- intermittently
- permissibly
- intermittantly
- remittently
Answer
intermittently. Stopping and starting: intermittently. Watch the spelling, -ent not -ant.
Confusable pair · imply / infer
-
The minister's silence ___ that the decision had already been taken.
- implied
- inferred
Answer
implied. The silence is the source; it folds the meaning in. The journalists watching would infer.
-
From the sudden troop movements, analysts ___ that an exercise was imminent.
- inferred
- implied
Answer
inferred. Analysts are receivers drawing a conclusion out of the evidence: infer.
-
What can be ___ from the passage about the author's view of subsidies?
- inferred
- implied
Answer
inferred. The standard CSAT stem: you, the reader, draw it out. The passage did the implying.
-
The report ___ , without stating it, that the deadline would slip.
- implied
- inferred
Answer
implied. The report is the source. "Without stating it" is almost a definition of imply.
-
Tap the wrong word. The editorial infers that the board acted too late.
Answer
infers → implies. The editorial is a source, not a reader. It implies; you infer.
-
Which sentence uses both verbs correctly?
- The data implies a slowdown; the RBI inferred as much.
- The data infers a slowdown; the RBI implied as much.
- The RBI implied the data; a slowdown was inferred by it.
- The data and the RBI both infer a slowdown.
Answer
The data implies a slowdown; the RBI inferred as much.. Data is a source (implies); the RBI reads the data (infers). The other options reverse one or both roles.
-
"Are you implying I made this up?" The speaker of this sentence believes the other person:
- hinted at an accusation without stating it
- drew a conclusion from evidence
- stated an accusation directly
- withdrew an accusation
Answer
hinted at an accusation without stating it. To imply is to fold in without stating. A direct accusation would need no such verb.
-
No stronger ___ than correlation can be drawn from this dataset.
- inference
- implication
- imposition
- implicature
Answer
inference. What the analyst draws out is an inference. The dataset’s implication is the other side of the same coin.
-
Say it in six words.
It is possible to arrive at the conclusion, on the basis of the figures, that growth is slowing.
Model
The figures imply growth is slowing. Eighteen words to six, and the verb imply absorbs "arrive at the conclusion on the basis of".
Collocation · The verbs of data
-
Q1 growth ___ every major pre-release forecast.
- beat
- defeated
- won
- conquered
Answer
beat. A forecast is beaten or exceeded. Defeat belongs to elections and armies.
-
Core sector growth ___ to 5.4 per cent in July from 6 per cent in June.
- eased
- reduced
- declined itself
- hiked
Answer
eased. Growth eases, moderates or slows. "Reduced" needs an agent doing the reducing.
-
The fiscal deficit ___ at 26.8 per cent of the full-year target.
- stands
- sits down
- improves
- succeeds
Answer
stands. A level is where a deficit stands. Neutral verb, no judgement smuggled in.
-
The June reading was ___ upward from 5 per cent to 6 per cent.
- revised
- hiked
- promoted
- appreciated
Answer
revised. Estimates are revised. Hiking is for administered prices; appreciation is for currencies.
-
Retail prices ___ once duty-free imports and stock limits were announced.
- eased
- were hiked
- narrowed
- moderated themselves
Answer
eased. Market prices ease or cool. Nobody decided them downward, so "were hiked" reverses both direction and agency.
-
Tap the wrong word. Growth increased to 7.8 per cent in the June quarter.
Answer
increased → accelerated. Growth is a rate: it accelerates, quickens or picks up. Output increases.
-
Tap the wrong word. The trade deficit improved to 18 billion dollars in July.
Answer
improved → narrowed. Narrowed states the fact; improved argues a position. Keep description and judgement separate.
-
"A favourable base effect flattered the April-July core sector numbers." This means:
- a weak comparison period made this year look stronger
- the numbers were falsified
- the base year was changed
- growth genuinely accelerated
Answer
a weak comparison period made this year look stronger. To flatter is to make something look better than it is: the 1.5 per cent base made 4.3 look strong, which is why both figures should be quoted together.
-
Which sentence is correct about agency?
- The OMCs hiked petrol prices; vegetable prices spiked after the rains.
- Vegetable prices hiked after the rains.
- The OMCs spiked petrol prices deliberately.
- Petrol prices hiked themselves.
Answer
The OMCs hiked petrol prices; vegetable prices spiked after the rains.. Hike needs a decider; spike describes an undecided surge. The first option assigns each verb to its right subject.
-
Put a data release's life in order. the figure is revised in later vintages · forecasts are beaten or missed · the data is released · the estimate is compiled
Answer
the estimate is compiled → the data is released → forecasts are beaten or missed → the figure is revised in later vintages. Compilation, release, comparison with forecasts, revision: the vintage lesson from today’s glossary in verb form.
From the edition · unfalsifiable
-
Pair each label with the claim it fits.
- unfalsifiable
- irrefutable
- unverifiable
- unsubstantiated
- falsified
- shown or made false
- asserted without support so far
- no evidence is available either way
- the evidence for it is overwhelming
- no possible evidence could disprove it
Answer
- unfalsifiable: no possible evidence could disprove it
- irrefutable: the evidence for it is overwhelming
- unverifiable: no evidence is available either way
- unsubstantiated: asserted without support so far
- falsified: shown or made false
Four verdicts on evidence, one on framing: unfalsifiable criticises the claim, the others report the state of proof.
-
Which claim is unfalsifiable as framed?
- "Every review that clears the bank only proves the reviewers were captured."
- "The bank's capital ratio is below the RBI floor."
- "The CEO resigned on August 29."
- "Deposits grew 12 per cent last year."
Answer
"Every review that clears the bank only proves the reviewers were captured.". The first absorbs every possible answer as further proof. The other three could each be checked and shown wrong.
-
"The DNA evidence was ___: no expert could shake it." Which word?
- irrefutable
- unfalsifiable
- unverifiable
- unsubstantiated
Answer
irrefutable. Overwhelming evidence that survives challenge is irrefutable. Unfalsifiable would mean the claim was never testable at all.
-
The allegation remains ___: the only witness has not been traced.
- unverifiable
- unfalsifiable
- irrefutable
- falsifiable
Answer
unverifiable. Evidence is unavailable, not impossible in principle. The honest label is unverifiable.
-
Tap the wrong word. The auditor was charged with unfalsifiable accounts.
Answer
unfalsifiable → falsified. The forger’s sense is falsified: made false. Unfalsifiable describes untestable claims, not faked documents.
-
Say it in eight words or fewer.
This accusation has been framed in such a manner that there exists no conceivable piece of evidence which could ever demonstrate it to be untrue.
Model
As framed, the accusation is unfalsifiable. Twenty-four words to six. The technical word absorbs the whole clause, which is why it exists.
-
Popper would call a theory unscientific if:
- no observation could ever count against it
- it has not yet been proved
- it contradicts common sense
- its author lacks a degree
Answer
no observation could ever count against it. Falsifiability, not proof, is the boundary. A theory that absorbs every outcome explains nothing.
Say it shorter · Untangling the of-string
-
Untangle to nine words or fewer.
The assessment of the impact of the diversion of the water of the river on the livelihood of the fishermen is pending.
Model
Assessing how the diversion affects fishermen's livelihoods is pending. A freed verb and one possessive collapse five of-links into nine words.
-
Untangle to eight words or fewer.
The report of the committee on the reform of the system of the funding of elections was tabled.
Model
The committee's election funding reform report was tabled. One possessive plus one compound noun (election funding reform) absorbs four ofs.
-
Untangle to ten words or fewer.
The examination of the question of the extension of the jurisdiction of the tribunal is under the consideration of the ministry.
Model
The ministry is considering whether to extend the tribunal's jurisdiction. Freeing two verbs (examine → considering, extension → extend) dissolves the whole queue and restores the agent to the front.
-
Which of-string should NOT be untangled?
- Directive Principles of State Policy
- the decision of the board of the bank
- the schedule of the polls of September
- the report of the panel of experts
Answer
Directive Principles of State Policy. It is a constitutional name, quotable as a unit. The other three are queues you built and can compress.
-
Why does "the situation's gravity" read oddly?
- English prefers the of-form for inanimate abstractions
- gravity cannot be possessed
- the apostrophe is misplaced
- it is American usage
Answer
English prefers the of-form for inanimate abstractions. Possessives suit persons and institutions. Abstractions keep the of-form: the gravity of the situation.
-
Pair each of-string with its best repair.
- the decision of the Cabinet
- the utilisation of the funds
- the schedule of the elections
- the recommendations of the committee
- the notification of the rules
- notifying the rules
- the committee's recommendations
- the election schedule
- how the funds were used
- the Cabinet's decision
Answer
- the decision of the Cabinet: the Cabinet's decision
- the utilisation of the funds: how the funds were used
- the schedule of the elections: the election schedule
- the recommendations of the committee: the committee's recommendations
- the notification of the rules: notifying the rules
Possessive for institutions, freed verb for actions, compound noun for fixed processes: three repairs, matched to their strengths.
-
Tap the queue's weakest link, the one a possessive removes. The verdict of the court on the validity of the levy was reserved.
Answer
of → court's (The court's verdict...). The court is an institution, so the possessive comes first: the court’s verdict on the levy’s validity, or better, on whether the levy is valid.
-
Untangle to eight words or fewer.
The completion of the construction of the building of the school is expected in the month of March.
Model
The school building should be finished by March. Compound noun (school building), freed verb (completion → finished), and "the month of March" is just March.
Usage watch · avail · updation · the concerned officer
-
Tap the slip. Eligible students may avail the scholarship from April.
Answer
avail → claim. Avail is reflexive in standard English: avail themselves of the scholarship. The plain verb claim is better still.
-
Tap the slip. The updation of the voter rolls will conclude in October.
Answer
updation → updating. Updation is office coinage. Updating works; "The voter rolls will be updated by October" is best.
-
The complaint was forwarded to the officer ___.
- concerned
- concerning
- concernedly
- of concern
Answer
concerned. Post-position: the officer in question. "The concerned officer" would mean a worried one.
-
"Several concerned parents wrote to the school." The parents were:
- worried
- the ones in question
- responsible for the problem
- selected at random
Answer
worried. Before the noun, concerned means worried, which is exactly what letter-writing parents are.
-
Which pair is correctly matched?
- a responsible officer: trustworthy · the officer responsible: who did it
- a responsible officer: who did it · the officer responsible: trustworthy
- both phrases mean trustworthy
- both phrases mean who did it
Answer
a responsible officer: trustworthy · the officer responsible: who did it. Same positional shift as concerned. Before the noun describes character; after the noun points at the person in question.
-
Tap the slip. Kindly ask the concerned department to issue the certificate.
Answer
concerned → department concerned. The department in question follows the noun. A concerned department would be an anxious one.
-
Members ___ of the early-exit window before it closed on Friday.
- availed themselves
- availed
- were availed
- did the availing
Answer
availed themselves. The reflexive pattern: availed themselves of. Without the reflexive, choose used or took.
-
Which is legitimate Indian English rather than a slip?
- crore
- updation
- avail the facility
- the concerned file
Answer
crore. Crore is exact and standard in Indian usage. The other three are the slips this lesson repairs.
-
Tap the word whose position makes it wrong. All the present members endorsed the present proposal.
Answer
present → members present. The members here now are the members present. The present proposal (current) is correct where it stands.
Idiom in formal register · on the table
-
Pair each figure with its formal sibling.
- on the table
- off the table
- a stress test
- on the cards
- on the anvil
- in preparation
- in prospect
- a trial under adverse conditions
- ruled out
- under negotiation
Answer
- on the table: under negotiation
- off the table: ruled out
- a stress test: a trial under adverse conditions
- on the cards: in prospect
- on the anvil: in preparation
Every idiom has a plainer sibling; owning both lets you choose the figure instead of reaching for it.
-
An Indian report says a bill "was tabled"; an American reader may understand:
- the bill was shelved
- the bill was put forward
- the bill was passed
- the bill was withdrawn by the sponsor
Answer
the bill was shelved. The verb splits by variety: US tabling shelves a motion. The idiom on the table carries no such split.
-
"A successor uranium arrangement is on the table" means:
- it is under negotiation and open to agreement
- it has been signed
- it has been ruled out
- it has been shelved indefinitely
Answer
it is under negotiation and open to agreement. Formally open for discussion. Signature would take it off the table in the happiest way: by settling it.
-
After the audit, privatisation was taken ___ for this fiscal year.
- off the table
- on the table
- onto the anvil
- off the cards
Answer
off the table. Withdrawn from consideration: off the table. "Off the cards" is not the idiom.
-
Why is "stress test" safer than most figures in an economics answer?
- it is a technical term of art in banking regulation
- it is shorter than its alternatives
- examiners enjoy sporting images
- it is American English
Answer
it is a technical term of art in banking regulation. Post-2008 regulation made it technical: the RBI stress-tests banks. A term of art is precision, not decoration.
-
Compress using the idiom.
The parties have formally agreed that the question of interim supply arrangements remains open for negotiation between them.
Model
Interim supply arrangements remain on the table. Seventeen words to seven. The idiom is doing exactly the work it exists for: naming formal openness.
-
Two figures in one sentence. Tap the one to cut. With the deal on the table, the ministry now faces a stress test of its negotiating capacity.
Answer
a stress test → a trial. One figure per sentence. Keep the idiom stating the formal position; replace the second with plain prose.
-
Which figure might an American reader NOT know?
- on the anvil
- on the table
- a stress test
- off the table
Answer
on the anvil. On the anvil thrives in Indian English and is known in Britain; American prose does not use it. The other three travel everywhere.
Writing task · The buffer question, in 120 words
In no more than 120 words, argue for or against India holding a protected sugar reserve that the ethanol blending programme cannot draw down. Use asymmetry or ratchet correctly, one data verb from today’s table (revised, eased, narrowed, stands at, beaten), and exactly one idiom, not in the first sentence. No of-strings you can untangle.
Companion to Vocab Builder (what a word scores in a GS answer) and Key Terms. Wordcraft is the language itself.
