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
17 words, each quoted in the sentence where it appeared in the 25 September 2026 edition. Meaning first, then the sentence, then where it came from.
The legal right or duty to take care of somebody, especially a child after a divorce; also the state of being held by the police or in prison, especially while waiting for trial.
हिंदी: संरक्षण (बच्चे की देखरेख का कानूनी अधिकार); हिरासत
The case arose from a long custody battle between divorced parents over their daughter.
From Supreme Court Sets Safeguards Against Misuse of POCSO in Custody Battles: No Automatic Arrest, Expert Assessment First · From Latin custodia, guarding, keeping, from custos, guardian. Today’s article uses both senses: child custody in a divorce and prolonged custody of a falsely accused parent. In GS answers keep them apart: police custody and judicial custody are stages of detention; custody of a child is guardianship. A custodial death is a death in detention.
An official order to appear in court.
हिंदी: समन; अदालत में हाज़िर होने का आदेश
For private complaints under Section 33, the Special Court must involve such an expert before summons.
From Supreme Court Sets Safeguards Against Misuse of POCSO in Custody Battles: No Automatic Arrest, Expert Assessment First · One summons, two summonses: the final s belongs to the word, which comes from Old French sumunse, a noun use of the past participle of somondre, to summon (Latin summonere, to remind privately). A court issues a summons and it is served on a person. A summons asks a person to appear; a warrant authorises the police to arrest.
A person who has escaped or run away, especially to avoid arrest or a court.
हिंदी: फ़रार व्यक्ति; भगोड़ा
Photographs help identify suspects and trace absconders, reassure the public that action has been taken, and deter crime.
From Publicity or Justice? Why Police Need a Law on Publishing Photographs of the Accused · From Latin abscondere, to hide away (ab-, away + condere, to put, store). Oxford gives the verb two uses: to escape from a place you may not leave, and to leave secretly with money that is not yours (he absconded with the company funds). A court can issue a proclamation against an absconder under Section 84 of the BNSS.
An official decision in court that a person is not guilty of a crime.
हिंदी: दोषमुक्ति; बरी होना
Once online, images are permanent and outlast acquittals; they can prejudice witnesses and judges, and they punish before trial.
From Publicity or Justice? Why Police Need a Law on Publishing Photographs of the Accused · The verb is acquit: a court acquits a person of a charge. It comes through Old French aquiter, to pay up, settle a claim, from quite, free: to be acquitted is to be set free of the claim. An acquittal is not the same as discharge, which ends a case before trial, or a closure report, which the police file when they find no case.
To influence somebody so that they have an unfair opinion about something; also to have a harmful effect on something.
हिंदी: (मुक़दमे को) प्रभावित करना; पूर्वाग्रह पैदा करना
Once online, images are permanent and outlast acquittals; they can prejudice witnesses and judges, and they punish before trial.
From Publicity or Justice? Why Police Need a Law on Publishing Photographs of the Accused · Most readers know the noun (prejudice against a group); the verb is the legal workhorse. Oxford marks it formal and gives Any delay will prejudice the child’s welfare. To prejudice a trial is to make a fair verdict harder. The lawyer’s phrase without prejudice means without harming a legal right or claim.
The policing of people’s personal conduct, especially couples and women in public places, by the police or by self-appointed groups, according to their idea of morality.
हिंदी: नैतिक पहरेदारी; लोगों के निजी आचरण पर नैतिकता के नाम पर रोक-टोक
Moral policing by officers in parks and public spaces made the accused’s impersonation possible.
From Enablers, Not Guardians: Women's Safety in Public Spaces Fourteen Years After December 2012 · An Indian English term, widely used in the press and in court judgments; Wikipedia’s article describes moral police in India as groups that act to enforce a code of morality. It is always critical: no one describes their own work as moral policing. In a GS answer on women’s safety, contrast it with policing for safety, which protects a person’s freedom to be in public rather than restricting it.
Not having to explain or give reasons for your actions to anyone; also impossible to understand or explain.
हिंदी: जवाबदेही से मुक्त; (दूसरे अर्थ में) अस्पष्टीकृत
Unaccountable money distorts competition, enables quid pro quo and weakens trust.
From Shell Parties and Missing Accounts: Ashok Lavasa on the Murky World of Political Finance · Two senses, and the context decides. Oxford’s examples: Too many government departments are unaccountable to the general public (answerable to no one) and an unaccountable increase in cases of the disease (unexplained). Unaccountable money is money whose source and use no one has to explain, which is the editorial’s point. The opposite, accountable, anchors every GS2 answer on governance.
A cruel and violent act, especially in a war.
हिंदी: अत्याचार; नृशंस कृत्य
It is achievable without a Charter amendment, it raises the cost of vetoes in atrocity situations, and it has growing support, now including two permanent members.
From Restrain, Explain or Abolish? The Debate on the UN Security Council Veto · From Latin atrox, fierce, cruel. In international law, atrocity crimes is the umbrella term for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity (UN usage adds ethnic cleansing), the situations in which the French-Mexican initiative asks permanent members not to use the veto. In Indian law the word appears in the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
A complete failure to reach agreement or settle an argument.
हिंदी: गतिरोध
The Uniting for Peace resolution of 1950 already lets the General Assembly take up a matter when the Council is deadlocked, which is the logic the Liechtenstein initiative builds on.
From Restrain, Explain or Abolish? The Debate on the UN Security Council Veto · Oxford’s collocations are the ones to use: talks reach deadlock, and ministers try to break the deadlock. The adjective is deadlocked. A stalemate is similar; a logjam is a pile-up of pending work. In a GS answer on the UN, a deadlocked Security Council is the standard phrase.
Having doubts that a claim or statement is true or that something will happen.
हिंदी: संदेहशील; शंकालु
Swaran Singh is sceptical: the UK and France are "not the heavyweights among the P5", so a principled position costs them less.
From Restrain, Explain or Abolish? The Debate on the UN Security Council Veto · British and Indian spelling is sceptical, American skeptical; the c is pronounced as a k in both. The word goes back to the ancient Greek Skeptics, followers of Pyrrho, who held that real knowledge was doubtful; Greek skeptesthai meant to look, to reflect. One is sceptical about or of a claim.
No longer used or useful because something newer has replaced it.
हिंदी: अप्रचलित; जो अब उपयोग में न हो
The General Assembly recognised the clauses as obsolete in 1995, and the 2005 World Summit resolved to delete the references, but no Charter amendment has followed.
From Current Affairs Today, September 25, 2026, Complete News Roundup · From Latin obsoletus, grown old, worn out. Obsolete means already out of use; obsolescent means going out of use, and planned obsolescence is designing products to wear out. The enemy-state clauses show the word’s legal sense: a provision can be obsolete in practice and still sit in the text until it is formally repealed.
A system of naming things, especially in a branch of science; the names used in a particular field.
हिंदी: नामकरण पद्धति; नामावली
Trap: the draft is about nomenclature and labelling, not a ban on selling analogue products.
From Current Affairs Today, September 25, 2026, Complete News Roundup · From Latin nomenclatura, a calling of names, from nomen, name + calare, to call out. In Rome a nomenclator was the servant who announced visitors and prompted a politician with the names of voters. Biology’s binomial nomenclature (Homo sapiens) is the best-known system; FSSAI’s draft is a rule of food nomenclature.
As a noun, a thing that is similar to another thing; as an adjective, using a continuously changing physical quantity to show or store data, as opposed to digital.
हिंदी: (किसी वस्तु का) समरूप विकल्प; अनुरूप
Analogue paneer, made with vegetable fats and starches, is cheaper and often sold or served as if it were milk paneer.
From Current Affairs Today, September 25, 2026, Complete News Roundup · From Greek analogos, proportionate, through French. Oxford marks the noun formal or specialist and notes the American spelling analog. FSSAI’s category Analogue in Dairy Context uses the noun sense: a product made to resemble a dairy food without being one. The adjective is the one in analogue watch and analogue signal.
A heavy fall of rain that often starts suddenly.
हिंदी: मूसलाधार बारिश
In a world two or three degrees warmer, the authors write, a once-in-a-decade downpour will be 15 to 20 per cent more intense.
From The Farmer and the Engineer: What AI Can and Cannot Tell India About the Monsoon · A plain English compound, down + pour, and a useful everyday word for answers that would otherwise say precipitation event. Oxford’s collocation is a torrential downpour. For the technical phrase use extreme rainfall event or heavy precipitation; for a description, downpour is clearer.
In science, very fine solid or liquid particles suspended in the air, such as dust, smoke or sulphate haze; in everyday use, a liquid such as paint kept under pressure in a can and released as a spray.
हिंदी: एरोसोल; वायु में निलंबित सूक्ष्म कण
Aerosols over the Indo-Gangetic Plain reflect sunlight, cooling the land and weakening the land-ocean contrast.
From The Farmer and the Engineer: What AI Can and Cannot Tell India About the Monsoon · The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the word to 1919 as a term in physics, from aero-, air + sol, from solution. Learner’s dictionaries give only the spray-can sense, but climate writing always means the scientific one: particles from pollution, dust and sea salt. Aerosols cool by reflecting sunlight, while greenhouse gases warm, which is why the two pull the monsoon in opposite directions.
A set of methods and principles used to carry out a particular activity, such as research or measurement.
हिंदी: कार्यप्रणाली; पद्धति-शास्त्र
Early transparency about methodology and data, and fixed compliance periods, build confidence.
From Carbon Market Targets Revised for Refineries and Textile Units Under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme · Strictly, a method is a way of doing something and a methodology is the whole system of methods and the reasoning behind them; method comes from Greek methodos, pursuit, a way. Do not use methodology as a grand word for a single method. For a baseline calculation, the method is often enough; for a survey or an index, methodology is right.
The act of giving information that is not true or complete, so that others form a wrong impression.
हिंदी: ग़लत प्रस्तुति; तथ्यों को तोड़-मरोड़कर पेश करना
The 2026 Regulations also allow settlement of cases involving misrepresentation of financial statements or diversion of funds, but only with appropriate remedial terms, such as disclosures and bringing back diverted funds.
From SEBI Board Rewrites the Settlement Rules and the Portfolio Managers Regulations, Adopts a Common Advertisement Code · The verb is misrepresent, which Oxford defines as giving information that is not true or complete so that people have the wrong impression. The not complete matters: a misrepresentation can be a half-truth, not only a lie. In contract law a misrepresentation can make a contract voidable; in securities law, misrepresenting financial statements misleads every investor who relies on them.
The seven lessons
One entry of each type, every day: a system, not a word list.
1 · Word roots
tendere · tensum · tentum
Latin: to stretch; to aim, to direct
Friday’s edition stretches one root across four pieces. The carbon market sets emission intensity targets for energy-intensive units; a warmer atmosphere makes rainfall extremes intensify; the SIR was extended to other States; and the men in the Delhi park pretended to be policemen. The Online Etymology Dictionary glosses Latin tendere as to stretch, extend, make tense; to aim, direct.
| Word | Formed from | Literal sense | From the edition, or from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| intense, intensity, intensify | Latin intensus, past participle of intendere | stretched tight, strained | edition: emission intensity targets; extremes intensify |
| intend, intention | intendere: in-, toward + tendere | to stretch out toward, to direct the mind at | root |
| tension | Latin tensio, a stretching | a stretched state | edition: the tension between data accuracy and regulatory stability |
| extend, extent | extendere: ex-, out + tendere | to stretch out | edition: the SIR was later extended to other States |
| attend, attention | attendere: ad-, toward + tendere | to stretch the mind toward | root |
| contend, contention | contendere: com- + tendere | to stretch out; to strive, to fight | root |
| pretend, pretence | praetendere: prae-, before + tendere | to stretch in front, to put forward as an excuse | edition: they pretended to be policemen |
| tent | Medieval Latin tenta, from tentus, stretched | something stretched out | root |
From stretching the body to stretching the mind. Several of these words moved from the physical to the mental. To attend was to stretch the mind toward something; to intend was to stretch out toward a goal; to contend was to strain against a rival. A pretender to a throne was first simply one who put forward a claim; the sense of a false claim came later.
Why it matters in an answer. The image of stretching still sits inside the words. Emission intensity measures how hard each unit of output presses on the atmosphere; a policy tension is a pull in two directions; to extend a scheme is to stretch it over more ground. Choose intensity for a ratio and intensify for a trend, and do not use intense where you mean intensive: an energy-intensive industry uses a lot of energy; an intense debate is a heated one.
From the carbon-market article (intensity, energy-intensive, tension), the monsoon op-ed (intensify, intensification), the ET column (extended) and the women’s safety editorial (pretended).
2 · Look-alike words
omission · commission
ə-MISH-ən · kə-MISH-ən
Akshay Rout’s column in The Economic Times draws a line that every GS4 answer needs: omissions by implementers should be corrected through checks and balances, while commissions, of error or mala fide intent, are breaches of conduct. One is a failure to act; the other is a wrong act.
| omission | commission | |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | omit | commit |
| Meaning here | not doing something that should be done; leaving something out | the act of doing something wrong or illegal (Oxford, formal) |
| From | Latin omittere, to let go, lay aside (ob- + mittere) | Latin committere, to bring together, entrust (com- + mittere); the sense of doing a wrong was already Latin |
| Example | voters left off the roll by oversight | names struck off the roll deliberately |
Sins of omission and commission. Oxford’s example for omission is sins of omission, not doing things that should be done. The pair is old and useful: in ethics and administrative law, failing to act when there is a duty to act can be as serious as acting wrongly. In a GS4 case study, name both: acts of omission and commission.
The other commission. Most of the time commission means an official body (the Election Commission), a fee on a sale, or an order for a work of art. The wrongdoing sense is formal and appears mostly in this pair and in the commission of an offence. Keep a third lookalike apart: emission, from emittere, to send out, is what the carbon market measures.
From the ET column on public trust: omissions should be corrected through checks and balances; commissions, of error or mala fide intent, are misconduct.
3 · Word partners
set · beat · earn · miss · buy · revise
what happens to a target and a credit
The Environment Ministry’s amendment of 22 September revised the targets for 21 refineries and 173 textile units. The article on it uses the whole cycle of an intensity-based carbon market, and each stage has its verb. Learn them as a sequence: the same verbs describe any target-and-trade scheme.
| Step | Who | The verb | In the edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | the government | notifies a target, set against a baseline | a GEI target is set against a baseline emission intensity |
| 2 | the government | revises the baseline, retains or removes a year’s target | baselines revised; only the 2026-27 targets retained |
| 3 | a unit that does well | beats its target and earns credits, which it can sell | units that beat their target earn carbon credit certificates |
| 4 | a unit that falls short | misses its target and must buy certificates | units that miss their target must buy certificates |
| 5 | a non-compliant unit | pays environmental compensation | twice the average traded price of a credit |
Cap or target. To cap something is to limit it (Oxford: the total annual fee is capped at 1.5 per cent). An absolute cap limits total emissions; India’s scheme sets intensity targets instead, which is why the article says "intensity, not a cap". Use cap-and-trade only for schemes with an absolute cap, such as the EU’s.
Abate. Oxford defines abate as to make something less intense or severe, with the example steps are to be taken to abate pollution. Hard-to-abate sectors are those, such as cement, steel and refining, whose emissions are hardest to cut with today’s technology.
From the carbon-market article, which describes the full cycle of the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.
4 · Today's key term
disgorgement
dis-GORJ-mənt
SEBI’s new settlement rules keep wrongful gains out of the base amount and require them to be disgorged separately, with interest. The word sounds technical, but its image is blunt: to disgorge is to throw up what has been swallowed.
Where it comes from. The Online Etymology Dictionary traces disgorge to late 15th-century English, from Old French desgorgier, from des-, out + gorge, throat: to eject from the throat, to vomit forth. The same gorge gives the English gorge, a narrow valley, and the verb to gorge, to eat greedily.
| Sense | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| everyday (Oxford) | to pour something out in large quantities | the pipe disgorges sewage into the sea |
| of a vehicle or building | to let out a crowd | the bus disgorged a crowd of children |
| legal (disgorgement) | giving up profits obtained illegally, by legal compulsion | wrongful gains disgorged with interest |
Disgorgement is not a penalty. A penalty punishes; disgorgement takes back what the wrongdoer gained, so that the wrong does not pay. That is why SEBI keeps the two apart and charges interest from the date of the violation. Wikipedia’s article describes it as giving up something on demand or by legal compulsion, for example profits obtained illegally, and notes that in American regulatory law it is a civil remedy.
In a GS3 answer. Pair it with deterrence: disgorgement removes the gain, a penalty adds a cost, and together they make a violation unprofitable. Without disgorgement, a settlement can become a price for misconduct.
From the SEBI Board article, where wrongful gains are kept out of the base amount and disgorged separately.
5 · Cut the padding
put it in the positive
lacks, not does not have
A sentence that says what something is not makes the reader do extra work: first imagine the thing, then cancel it. Often a single positive word says the same thing directly. The old style rule, put statements in positive form, does not ban not; it asks you to use it for a real denial or contrast, not to dodge a plain statement.
| Negative form | Positive form | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| The ECI is not generally empowered to deregister a party. (edition) | The ECI generally lacks the power to deregister a party. | is not empowered became lacks the power |
| An intensity scheme does not guarantee that total emissions fall. (edition) | Under an intensity scheme, total emissions can still rise. | the reader is told what can happen, not what is not promised |
| The officers did not pay attention to the complaint. | The officers ignored the complaint. | five words became one verb |
| The data are not reliable. | The data are unreliable. | a negative prefix replaces a separate not |
Keep the not that contrasts. The carbon-market article’s heading "Intensity, not a cap" should stay as it is: it sets one idea against another, and the not is the point. So does the trap line "a labelling rule, not a ban". The rule targets the not that hides a plain claim.
The test: if a sentence contains not, ask whether one word (lacks, ignored, forgot, unable, failed, few) would say it outright. If it would, use the word.
From the Lavasa write-up (the ECI and deregistration) and the carbon-market article (intensity, not a cap).
6 · Correct usage
replace · substitute
keep the direction straight
The edition is full of one thing taking another’s place: SEBI’s Settlement Regulations, 2026 will replace the 2018 Regulations, and the Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act. Two verbs do this work, and they point in opposite directions.
| Pattern | What goes out | What comes in | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| replace A with B | A | B | Parliament replaced the 1961 Act with the 2025 Act. |
| B replaces A | A | B | The 2026 Regulations will replace the 2018 Regulations. |
| substitute B for A | A | B | Margarine can be substituted for butter (Oxford). |
| substitute A with B | A | B | Butter can be substituted with margarine (Oxford). |
The trap. Oxford Learner’s accepts both patterns for substitute, but they put the new thing in different places: after substitute in the first, after with in the second. A writer who mixes them can say the reverse of what was meant. Replace has only one pattern, so when in doubt, use replace.
The drafting formula. Indian amending Acts use a fixed form: "for the words X, the words Y shall be substituted". Read it as substitute Y for X: Y comes in, X goes out. The same Acts say a clause is inserted (added, nothing removed) or omitted (removed, nothing added), as in FSSAI’s draft, which would insert a new clause into Regulation 2.1.1.
From the SEBI Board article (the 2026 Regulations will replace the 2018 Regulations) and the Lavasa write-up (the Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act).
7 · Idioms in answers
within the four corners of the law
inside the limits the law itself sets
The Supreme Court’s POCSO judgment set its safeguards "within the four corners of the law", precautions that neither dilute the Act nor weaken its provisions. The phrase tells the reader that the Court added no new offence or exception: it worked inside what the statute already allows, such as the arrest discretion under Section 35 of the BNSS.
Meaning. The image is a document with four corners. Wiktionary gives the legal sense of four corners as the face of a document or its contents, considered without any outside information. Within the four corners of a law, a contract or a judgment means inside its own text and limits.
| Phrase | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| within the four corners of the law | inside the limits the law sets | legal; fine in GS answers |
| the four corners of a document | its text alone, without outside evidence | legal |
| the four corners of the earth | everywhere, all parts of the world | literary; essays |
| cut corners | do something cheaply or badly, ignoring rules | informal; use with care |
| turn the corner | pass a critical point and begin to improve | fine in essays |
In a GS answer. The phrase is useful when you discuss judicial restraint: a court that stays within the four corners of the law interprets and applies the statute without legislating. Pair it with its opposite, judicial overreach, and keep cut corners, which is about carelessness, for a different point.
From the POCSO safeguards article, where the Court set precautions within the four corners of the law.
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.
Word roots · tendere, tensum (to stretch)
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which word is NOT built on Latin tendere?
- pretend
- tension
- tender (soft)
- extend
Answer
tender (soft). The Online Etymology Dictionary derives tender, soft, from Latin tener. Extend, tension and pretend all contain tendere.
-
Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
Cement and steel are energy-___ industries.
- intense
- intensive
- intent
- intended
Answer
intensive. Intensive means using a lot of something; intense means strong or extreme.
-
Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each word to its literal sense.
- extend
- attend
- pretend
- tension
- to stretch in front, put forward
- to stretch out
- a stretched state
- to stretch the mind toward
Answer
- extend: to stretch out
- attend: to stretch the mind toward
- pretend: to stretch in front, put forward
- tension: a stretched state
Each literal sense still sits inside the modern meaning.
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which word does NOT come from tendere, tensum (to stretch)?
- contend
- intend
- extent
- tender
Answer
tender. Tender, soft, comes from tener. The other four come from tendere or its past participle tentus.
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What does emission intensity measure in India’s carbon market?
- Total greenhouse gases emitted by a unit
- Greenhouse gases emitted per unit of output
- How often a unit reports its emissions
- The temperature of a factory’s exhaust
Answer
Greenhouse gases emitted per unit of output. The CCTS sets intensity targets per tonne of product, not an absolute cap on total emissions.
-
Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each word to its sense.
- tent
- extend
- attend
- intend
- to direct the mind at a goal
- cloth stretched over poles
- to stretch out
- to stretch the mind toward
Answer
- tent: cloth stretched over poles
- extend: to stretch out
- attend: to stretch the mind toward
- intend: to direct the mind at a goal
From a stretched object, to stretching something out, to stretching attention, to a plan held in the mind.
Look-alike words · omission / commission
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
In Rout’s column, what is a commission?
- A failure to act
- A fee paid on a sale
- A wrong act, by error or with bad intent
- A body appointed to inquire into something
Answer
A wrong act, by error or with bad intent. Paired with omission, commission means the act of doing something wrong.
-
Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
Leaving an eligible voter off the roll by oversight is an act of ___.
- omission
- commission
- admission
- emission
Answer
omission. A failure to include something is an omission.
-
Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each noun to its verb.
- omission
- commission
- emission
- admission
- omit
- admit
- commit
- emit
Answer
- omission: omit
- commission: commit
- emission: emit
- admission: admit
All four come from Latin mittere, to send, let go.
-
Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the word used wrongly.
The officer's failure to act was an act of emission
Answer
emission → omission. A failure to act is an omission. Emission is something sent out, such as gas.
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which phrase names both kinds of wrongdoing in a GS4 answer?
- acts of omission and emission
- acts of submission and commission
- acts of omission and commission
- acts of emission and admission
Answer
acts of omission and commission. Omission is failing to act; commission is acting wrongly.
-
Put in order Number the lines 1 upward in the correct order.
Arrange from the least blameworthy to the most.
- an omission corrected in time
- a commission by error
- an omission left uncorrected
- a commission with mala fide intent
Answer
- an omission corrected in time
- an omission left uncorrected
- a commission by error
- a commission with mala fide intent
The column treats omissions as matters for correction and commissions as breaches of conduct; a deliberate wrong is the gravest.
Word partners · the verbs of a carbon market: set, beat, earn, miss, buy
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What happens to a unit that beats its emission intensity target?
- It must buy certificates
- It pays environmental compensation
- It earns carbon credit certificates, which it can sell
- Its baseline is removed
Answer
It earns carbon credit certificates, which it can sell. Outperforming the target earns credits; falling short means buying them.
-
Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
Units that ___ their target must buy certificates from units that did better.
- cap
- earn
- miss
- beat
Answer
miss. To miss a target is to fall short of it.
-
Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match the verb to its object.
- set
- earn
- pay
- abate
- emissions
- carbon credit certificates
- environmental compensation
- a target against a baseline
Answer
- set: a target against a baseline
- earn: carbon credit certificates
- pay: environmental compensation
- abate: emissions
Each verb has its natural object in a carbon market.
-
Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the word that misdescribes India’s scheme.
India's carbon market caps total emissions in each sector
Answer
caps → sets intensity targets for. India sets targets per unit of output, not an absolute cap on total emissions.
-
Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What are hard-to-abate sectors?
- Sectors that have already met their targets
- Sectors whose emissions are hardest to cut with current technology
- Sectors exempt from the carbon market
- Sectors that trade the most credits
Answer
Sectors whose emissions are hardest to cut with current technology. To abate is to reduce; hard-to-abate sectors include cement, steel and refining.
-
Put in order Number the lines 1 upward in the correct order.
Arrange the cycle in order.
- the unit beats or misses the target
- the government notifies a target against a baseline
- the unit reports its emission intensity
- the unit earns credits or buys certificates
Answer
- the government notifies a target against a baseline
- the unit reports its emission intensity
- the unit beats or misses the target
- the unit earns credits or buys certificates
Target, performance, result, and then the trade that settles it.
Today's key term · disgorgement
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What does disgorgement take from a wrongdoer?
- The wrongdoer’s licence
- A fine fixed by the regulator as punishment
- The profit gained, or loss avoided, through the violation
- A share of future profits
Answer
The profit gained, or loss avoided, through the violation. Disgorgement removes the wrongful gain; a penalty is a separate punishment.
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Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
The regulator ordered the company to ___ its wrongful gains with interest.
- dislodge
- disburse
- discourage
- disgorge
Answer
disgorge. To disgorge gains is to give them up by legal compulsion.
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Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each word to its sense.
- disgorge
- gorge (noun)
- gorge (verb)
- penalty
- a punishment for breaking a rule
- to pour out; to give up gains
- a narrow valley
- to eat greedily
Answer
- disgorge: to pour out; to give up gains
- gorge (noun): a narrow valley
- gorge (verb): to eat greedily
- penalty: a punishment for breaking a rule
Three of these share the Old French gorge, throat.
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Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the word that confuses two remedies.
Disgorgement is the penalty SEBI imposes to punish violators
Answer
penalty → remedy that takes back the gain. Disgorgement takes back the gain; punishment is the job of a penalty.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What is the literal image in disgorge?
- Removing a gate
- Draining a gorge
- Cutting a throat
- Throwing up what was swallowed
Answer
Throwing up what was swallowed. Old French desgorgier: des-, out + gorge, throat; to vomit forth.
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Put in order Number the lines 1 upward in the correct order.
Arrange the steps of SEBI’s new pre-show-cause route in order.
- the person applies for settlement within 60 days
- the settlement amount is worked out by the formula
- SEBI issues a settlement notice before any show cause notice
- a settlement order is passed on payment
Answer
- SEBI issues a settlement notice before any show cause notice
- the person applies for settlement within 60 days
- the settlement amount is worked out by the formula
- a settlement order is passed on payment
SEBI’s press release: the notice gives 60 days to apply, and the order is passed on payment of the settlement amount.
Cut the padding · put it in the positive: lacks, not does not have
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Say it shorter Rewrite the sentence below within the word limit.
The officers did not pay any attention to the complaints that were not filed in writing.
Word limit 6
Model
The officers ignored oral complaints. Did not pay any attention to became ignored, and complaints that were not filed in writing became oral complaints.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which version puts the statement in positive form without changing its meaning?
- The ECI can deregister any party.
- The ECI is not generally without the power to deregister a party.
- The ECI generally lacks the power to deregister a party.
- It is not the case that the ECI is generally empowered to deregister a party.
Answer
The ECI generally lacks the power to deregister a party.. Lacks says it directly. The second reverses the meaning; the third is false; the fourth adds a second layer of negation.
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Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
The survey data were ___, so the ministry withdrew the estimate.
- not reliable enough to be relied upon
- reliable
- not unreliable
- unreliable
Answer
unreliable. A single negative prefix says it in one word; not unreliable reverses it.
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Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the word that should be replaced by a single positive verb.
The witness did not remember the date
Answer
did not remember → forgot. Did not remember is one idea: forgot.
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Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each negative form to its positive form.
- did not have
- did not pay attention to
- did not succeed
- not many
- lacked
- failed
- ignored
- few
Answer
- did not have: lacked
- did not pay attention to: ignored
- did not succeed: failed
- not many: few
Each positive form says the same thing in one word.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which not should stay?
- The report was not accurate.
- The minister did not remember the figure.
- The unit did not meet its target.
- Intensity, not a cap.
Answer
Intensity, not a cap.. Intensity, not a cap is a contrast; the not is the point. The others can become missed, inaccurate and forgot.
Correct usage · replace A with B, substitute B for A
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which sentence says that the 2025 Act took the place of the 1961 Act?
- The 2025 Act was replaced with the 1961 Act.
- The 2025 Act was replaced by the 1961 Act.
- The 1961 Act was substituted for the 2025 Act.
- The 2025 Act was substituted for the 1961 Act.
Answer
The 2025 Act was substituted for the 1961 Act.. Substitute B for A: B, the 2025 Act, comes in. The other three put the old Act in.
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Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
The Settlement Regulations, 2026 will ___ the 2018 Regulations once notified.
- substitute
- be substituted with
- replace
- be replaced by
Answer
replace. B replaces A: the new rules replace the old.
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Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match each amending word to what it does.
- substituted
- inserted
- omitted
- amended
- new words in, nothing out
- old words out, nothing in
- changed in any of these ways
- new words in, old words out
Answer
- substituted: new words in, old words out
- inserted: new words in, nothing out
- omitted: old words out, nothing in
- amended: changed in any of these ways
These are the building blocks of every amending Act.
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Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the word that reverses the writer’s meaning.
The new rules were substituted with the old ones
Answer
with → for. Substituted with the old ones means the old rules came in. The writer meant the new rules were substituted for the old ones.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
How should you read 'for the words X, the words Y shall be substituted'?
- X comes in and Y goes out
- Both X and Y stay
- X is added after Y
- Y comes in and X goes out
Answer
Y comes in and X goes out. Substitute Y for X: Y takes X’s place.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which pattern is standard and says that B takes A’s place?
- replace B with A
- substitute A for B
- replace A with B
- substitute A with B
Answer
replace A with B. Replace the old with the new; substitute the new for the old. "Substitute A with B" is common in speech but reverses the classic pattern and confuses readers.
Idioms in answers · within the four corners of the law
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
What does it mean that the Court set safeguards within the four corners of the law?
- It acted quickly and cut procedural corners
- It worked inside what the statute already allows, adding nothing new
- It applied the safeguards everywhere in India
- It rewrote the POCSO Act
Answer
It worked inside what the statute already allows, adding nothing new. Within the four corners of the law means inside the limits the law sets.
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Fill the blank Circle the letter that completes the sentence.
The contract must be interpreted within its four ___, without outside evidence.
- edges
- sides
- corners
- walls
Answer
corners. The legal idiom is the four corners of a document.
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Match the pairs Write the letter from the right against each number on the left.
Match the idiom to its meaning.
- within the four corners of the law
- cut corners
- turn the corner
- the four corners of the earth
- begin to improve
- everywhere
- do something cheaply or badly
- inside the law’s limits
Answer
- within the four corners of the law: inside the law’s limits
- cut corners: do something cheaply or badly
- turn the corner: begin to improve
- the four corners of the earth: everywhere
Five idioms share the corner image; each means something different.
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Find the error Circle it in the sentence below, then write the correction.
Find the phrase that says the opposite of what the writer meant.
The Court cut corners by staying within the statute
Answer
cut corners by staying within the statute → stayed within the four corners of the law. Cutting corners means being careless. The writer meant the Court stayed inside the law’s limits.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which plain sentence says what 'within the four corners of the law' says?
- The Court acted inside the limits the law already sets.
- The Court acted in secret.
- The Court made a new law.
- The Court applied the law in four States.
Answer
The Court acted inside the limits the law already sets.. The idiom is about staying inside the law’s limits.
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Choose one Circle the letter of the correct option.
Which is the plain sibling of "within the four corners of the law"?
- no corners cut
- by the book
- inside the limits of the law
- above board
Answer
inside the limits of the law. The idiom means strictly inside what the law permits. By the book is informal; no corners cut and above board describe honesty, not legal limits.
Writing task · Settle, disgorge, deter: explain SEBI's new settlement rules in exam English
In no more than 100 words, explain to a friend what SEBI’s new settlement framework changes, and why wrongful gains are now disgorged separately. Use at least one word from today’s root family (intensity, intend, extend, tension, attend, contend, pretend) and at least one word from today’s glossary.
Companion to Vocab Builder (what a word scores in a GS answer) and Key Terms. Wordcraft is the language itself.
