Question

Choose the exact meaning of the idiom/ phrase.
He is not worth his salt if he fails at this juncture.
A. Very strange
B. Very proud of himself
C. Quite depressed
D. Quite worthless

Answer 1

Hint: An idiom is a type of phrase with a non-literal meaning attached to the phrase. Their figurative meaning is different from their literal meaning. On the other hand, a phrase is a compilation of words with a definite, literal meaning. They are not complete sentences, and used as a part of sentences. There are different types of phrases, such a prepositional phrase, conjunctional phrase, etc. The above underlined words are called ‘idiom’. Hence, they are non-literal and non-deductible as well. The meaning of this idiom is ‘to become worthy for what one has been paid as the salary’.

Complete answer:
- Let us go through the given options and see which of the following phrases is the most suitable one in order to describe the given idiom.
- The first option, 'very strange' can be expressed as an abnormal situation. For instance, “It was very strange of her to skip the office party”.
- The second option is 'very proud of himself'. This is basically used in a situation when a person praises himself or herself for some of his/her action. For instance, “He was very proud of himself after donating a large amount to the cancer fund”.
- The third option is 'quite depressed'. This set of words can be used in a sentence such as, “Radha was quite depressed for not being able to participate in the competition”.
- The fourth option is 'quite worthless'. This phrase can be used in a sentence such as, “He will become quite worthless as the disease plants do to the farmer”.
- Here as per the meaning of the idiom as we have described above, we can see that the fourth option is appropriate to signify the meaning of given idiom. Thus, the words or phrase ‘quite worthless’ would be the correct choice here.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘D'.

Note: While dealing with such questions, one should keep in mind that it can be possible that the given idiom is not synonymous to the given options. In such a scenario, we need to find the one with the closest resemblance. Because, for several reasons we can find that the meaning of a distinct idiom along with its specific illustrations can’t get the proper similarity by expressing any separate phrase.