Question

Choose the correct meaning of the given phrase.
"To rise to the occasion”
A. to succeed in life
B. to face difficulties squarely
C. To welcome challenges of life
D. To domineer over others
E. To put forth unusual efforts so as to cope with an emergency

Answer 1

Hint: In linguistics, there are words which are used to convey the emotions of the writer. There are many words which are almost similar in meanings, but they have minute differences which make each of them unique. We don’t always use the same word to describe our emotions. We use its synonyms to specifically describe what exactly we want to express.
Similarly, a group of words is also used to describe a specific feeling. But it is not always necessary that these have to be literal in the meaning. These words are ‘idioms’ which mean different from the words they are written in.

Complete answer:
1. Before we move on to find the correct option for this sentence, let us first understand what the idiom, ‘to rise in the occasion’ conveys.
2. If we look at this idiom, we can see that it is primarily made of a verb and a noun viz., rise and occasion. The verb ‘to rise’ refers to moving from a lower position to a higher position. Here, this verb does not literally mean to rise physically. Instead, it refers to improving someone’s quality.
3. An option like ‘to succeed in life’ is not equivalent with the question phrase, as it is rather definite about some distinct occasion.
4. For options B and C, the same logic we can give. They are not showing any occasion which is especially referred to in the question phrase.
5. And the noun, ‘occasion’ can refer to a situation. And here, it refers to a challenging situation. Thus, the meaning of this idiom can be set forth as ‘improving oneself or working extra hard to compensate with an arising challenge’.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘E'.

Note:Let us recapitulate the concept of idioms with the help of an example. The idiom ‘speak of the devil’ is immensely popular. It does not refer to actually pronouncing some devil or an evil person. It is used in a scenario where two people are speaking about someone else (who is not present) and suddenly they appear. Here in the question sentence, the word ‘occasion’ is accurately indicated by the word ‘emergency’, which helped us to find out the correct alternative too.