{"id":22624,"date":"2026-06-21T18:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/mcq\/meaning-check-a-hard-pill-to-swallow\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T18:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:20:27","slug":"meaning-check-a-hard-pill-to-swallow","status":"publish","type":"mcq","link":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/mcq\/meaning-check-a-hard-pill-to-swallow\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaning Check: A hard pill to swallow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Which meaning matches the phrase <strong>A hard pill to swallow<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"quiz-options\">\n<li>A rule, law, or plan that is no longer effective<\/li>\n<li>Something that has both good and bad effects<\/li>\n<li>Something expected to be exciting but turns out disappointing<\/li>\n<li>An unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept<\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","topic":[3212],"subject":[3116],"education_level":[1895],"class_list":["post-22624","mcq","type-mcq","status-publish","hentry","topic-exam-preparation","subject-idioms-phrases","education_level-ssc"],"mcq_note":"<p><strong>A hard pill to swallow<\/strong> means <strong>an unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept<\/strong>. This answer is correct because the expression has a fixed figurative meaning in English. In an SSC idiom question, students should match the whole phrase with its accepted meaning rather than translate each word separately.<\/p><ul><li><strong>Classroom example:<\/strong> <em>A hard pill to swallow<\/em> can refer to an unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept.<\/li><li><strong>Story example:<\/strong> A writer may use <em>A hard pill to swallow<\/em> when describing an unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept.<\/li><li><strong>Exam example:<\/strong> When a sentence contains <em>A hard pill to swallow<\/em>, choose the meaning \u201can unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>","mcq_options":[{"right":"no","answer":"A rule, law, or plan that is no longer effective"},{"right":"no","answer":"Something that has both good and bad effects"},{"right":"no","answer":"Something expected to be exciting but turns out disappointing"},{"right":"yes","answer":"An unpleasant fact that is difficult to accept"}],"multi_answers":"no","subject_terms":[{"id":3116,"title":"Idioms &amp; Phrases","slug":"idioms-phrases"}],"topic_terms":[{"id":3212,"title":"Exam Preparation","slug":"exam-preparation"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mcq\/22624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mcq"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/mcq"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=22624"},{"taxonomy":"subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject?post=22624"},{"taxonomy":"education_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcqacademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/education_level?post=22624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}