There is the same connection between the word outside the brackets and one word inside each pair of brackets. Find 2 words, one from each group, that completes the sentence in the best way.

Scarcity is to (shortage bare empty)
as abundance is to (heap extra plenty)

My DS got his answer were bare and plenty. The answer should be shortage and plenty. But I didn't know how to explain to him that the model answer was better.

Please help!

bristolmum

I'm sure someone will come along with a proper explanation, but is just is! If something is scarce, it is in short supply, bare just doesn't fit the explanation! You might say "the cupboard is bare", but you wouldn't say "the cupboard is scarce". Is he getting infused with "sparse"?

Thanks scary mum.

My DS asked - bare means a little bit or nothing at all?

I know that bare may means nothing such as foot means wear nothing. Am I right?

Sorry typing mistake!

I mean bare feet = didn't wear any shoes so bare means nothing. Am I right?

If I am right, should I explain to him that scarcity means not enough so the answer shortage is more appropriated than bare.

Please advice.

Bristolmum

As well as meaning, it's about parts of speech. Scarcity, Shortage, Abundance, Plenty can all be nouns ("there is a scarcity of affordable housing"; "there is a shortage of affordable housing"; "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath" (Matthew 13:12), "So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." (Proverbs 3:10) - these are actually quite archaic uses). Shortage is occasionally an adjective ("physics is a shortage subject") but the others rarely, if ever. None of them are verbs in common usage.

By contrast, Bare is rarely (never?) a noun; it is almost always an adjective ("he had bare feet") or a verb ("It's sunny, so I am going to bare my legs today").

So there are plenty of sentences in which you can replace "scarcity" with "shortage" and still have it both grammatically correct and meaning roughly the same, and likewise "abundance" and "plenty". And you can replace any of them with any other of them and still have something grammatically correct, although the meaning will be inverted. You can't replace any of the first four with bare and have it be grammatically correct. Just reading it aloud should tell you that, even if you can't put names to the reasons. "There is a bare of housing".

I knew someone would be able to explain it better than me!

I wonder if it's something to do with the word "bare" creeping into the English language used in a different way. Some of my DCs' friends use it in a slang way, eg "it was bare good" (not sure if that is the correct slang usage ). Mind you, it still doesn't mean "scarcity" or "shortage", but might cause confusion.

Many thanks for your help - scary mum and daveg.

Fantastic explanation, daveg.
Scarcity and shortage are nouns whilst bare is an adjective.