Question

The boy had a hair-breadth escape from a street incident.
In the given question, choose the alternative which best expresses the meaning of the idiom in italics.
A) Lucky
B) Easy
C) Narrow
D) Quick

Answer 1

Hint: In the above question we have to identify the word from the given options which best tells the meaning of the phrase ‘ hairbreadth escape’ in the given sentence. The meaning of Hair- breadth escape can be easily understood from the term itself. We know the breadth of hair is very small, therefore it refers to a very close escape from something.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand the meaning of the given options;
A) Lucky - Someone whose luck works in their favour; someone who achieves or gets something they desire/need/want.
B) Easy- Something that is not difficult; something that is not complicated and something that one does not have to worry about.
C) Narrow- It refers to a very short distance between two ends. Something which is not large. Something which is not wide.
D) Quick- Something without delay; done at a good speed; taken very little time to do something;.

The correct answer is narrow. Hair- breadth escape implies a narrow escape because hairbreadth is very narrow so we can replace the phrase with the word ‘narrow. Therefore, the complete sentence will be ‘The boy had a narrow escape from a street incident.’

Thus the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: All the given options in the questions are adjectives. Narrow escape is a noun because we are referring to an incident that could have resulted in something very unfortunate but was ‘just’ escaped. It is precisely an abstract noun. Abstract nouns are the nouns that tell about the ideas, feelings, incidents, philosophies, acts or a situation. Narrow, an adjective combines with escape, a noun to form a noun.