The minister avoided any mention of the issue of women’s reservation in the private sector. He was accused of _____ the issue.
skirting
The question asks us to fill in the blank with a word that accurately describes the action of a minister who "avoided any mention of the issue of women’s reservation in the private sector." The phrase "avoided any mention" is crucial here, indicating that the minister deliberately did not address the topic directly.
Understanding the Issue
The sentence highlights a situation where a minister chose not to discuss a specific and potentially sensitive topic: women's reservation in the private sector. This act of deliberate avoidance requires a verb that conveys the idea of going around or not directly confronting an issue.
Analyzing Verb Options
- collaring: This verb means to seize or grab someone, often by the collar, or to apprehend them. For example, "The police collared the suspect." It does not relate to the act of avoiding a discussion or an issue.
- skirting: To "skirt an issue" is an idiomatic expression that means to avoid dealing with it directly, to go around it, or to bypass it. When someone skirts an issue, they discuss everything but the main point, or they simply do not bring it up at all, much like walking around the edge of something rather than crossing it. This meaning perfectly matches the minister's action of having "avoided any mention" of the topic.
- tying: This verb means to fasten, bind, or secure something with a knot or cord. For example, "tying a knot" or "tying one's shoes." It has no connection to the act of avoiding a discussion or an issue.
- belting: This verb can mean to hit something hard, to fasten with a belt, or to sing loudly. For example, "belting out a song" or "belting a punch." None of these meanings fit the context of avoiding an issue.
Why "Skirting" Fits Best
The phrase "skirting the issue" precisely captures the minister's action of deliberately not addressing the subject of women's reservation in the private sector. The minister was accused of actively bypassing or sidestepping the sensitive topic, which aligns directly with the meaning of "skirting." This choice makes the sentence grammatically correct and semantically logical, accurately reflecting the minister's avoidance.
Therefore, the most suitable word to complete the sentence is "skirting," as it accurately describes the act of avoiding a direct discussion or engagement with a particular issue.
Important Questions from Verbal Deduction
Lamenting the gradual sidelining of the arts in school curricula, a goup of prominent artists wrote to the Chief Minister last year, asking him to allocate more funds to support arts education in schools. However, no such increase has been announced in this year`s Budget. The artists expressed their deep anguish at their request not being approved, but many of them remain optimistic about funding in the future.
Which of the statement(s) below is/are logically valid and can be inferred from the above statements?
(i) The artists expected funding for the arts to increase this year.
(ii) The Chief Minister was receptive to the idea of increasing funding for the arts.
(iii) The Chief Minister is a prominent artist.
(iv) Schools are giving less importance to arts education nowadays,Read the following paragraph and choose the correct statement.
Climate change has reduced human security and threatened human wellbeing. An ignored reality of human progress is that human security largely depends upon environmental security. But on the contrary, human progress seems contradictory to environmental security. To keep up both at the required level is a challenge to be addressed by one and all. One of the ways to curb the climate change may be suitable scientific innovations, while the other may be the Gandhian perspective on
Small scale progress with focus on sustainability.Choose the most appropriate phrase from the options given below to complete the following sentence.
The aircraft_______ take off as soon as its flight plan was filed.
Once the team of analysts identifies the problem, we _________ in a better position to comment on the issue.
Which one of the following choices CANNOT fill the given blank?“If you are looking for a history of India, or for an account of the rise and fall of the British Raj, or for the reason of the cleaving the subcontinent into two mutually antagonistic parts and the effects this mutilation will have in the respective sections, and ultimately on Asia, you will to find it in these pages; for though I have spent a lifetime in the country, I lived too near the seat of events, and was too intimately associated with the actors, to get the perspective needed for the impartial recording of these matters.”
Which of the following is closest in meaning to ‘cleaving’?
