Which of the following is CORRECT with respect to grammar and usage? Mount Everest is ____________
the highest peak in the world
Mount Everest: Understanding Correct Grammar and Usage
The question asks to identify the grammatically correct and appropriate usage of words when describing Mount Everest as the world's tallest mountain. This involves understanding the rules for using superlative adjectives and articles in English.
Superlative Adjectives and Articles
When we talk about something that is at the extreme end of a quality (the best, the tallest, the oldest), we use superlative adjectives. A key rule for superlative adjectives is that they are almost always preceded by the definite article "the". This is because they refer to a specific, unique item or the most extreme example within a group.
- Definite Article "The": "The" is used before superlative adjectives (e.g., the tallest, the fastest, the best).
- Singular vs. Plural Nouns: When referring to a unique item (like "the highest peak"), a singular noun is used. When saying "one of the highest," the noun that follows must be plural (e.g., "one of the highest peaks").
Analyzing the Options
Let's examine each given option based on these grammatical rules:
- Option 1: "the highest peak in the world"
- This option correctly uses the definite article "the" before the superlative adjective "highest".
- "Peak" is used in its singular form, which is appropriate because Mount Everest is a single, unique peak that holds the record.
- This phrase accurately conveys that Mount Everest is the single most elevated point among all peaks globally.
- Grammatically Correct.
- Option 2: "highest peak in the world"
- This option omits the definite article "the" before "highest".
- Superlative adjectives generally require "the" when referring to a specific item that is the "most" of something.
- Grammatically Incorrect.
- Option 3: "one of highest peak in the world"
- This option is incorrect for two main reasons:
- It misses "the" before "highest".
- When using the structure "one of the superlative noun", the noun must be plural (e.g., "one of the highest peaks"). "Peak" is singular here.
- Grammatically Incorrect.
- Option 4: "one of the highest peak in the world"
- This option correctly includes "the" before "highest".
- However, it incorrectly uses the singular noun "peak" after "one of the highest". It should be "one of the highest peaks" to indicate that Mount Everest is one among a group of very high peaks. However, in the context of it being the highest, this construction is typically used if there were multiple "highest" peaks (which isn't the case here for a unique highest point) or if it were among a group of *very* high peaks, but not necessarily *the* absolute highest.
- Since Mount Everest is uniquely the highest, the simpler and more direct "the highest peak" is more accurate.
- Grammatically Incorrect due to singular "peak".
Conclusion on Correct Usage
Based on the rules of English grammar, specifically concerning superlative adjectives and definite articles, "the highest peak in the world" is the only grammatically correct option that accurately describes Mount Everest's status.
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’?
