In each question below, an idiom or phrase is given followed by three sentences. Identify which of the sentences use the given idiom or phrase correctly in terms of both grammar and context. Idiom: ASSUME AIRS 1. Having secured a mid-level managerial position through a lateral transfer rather than competitive promotion, the new department head began to assume airs of authority that his actual institutional standing did not remotely justify, alienating colleagues who had served the organisation for far longer. 2. The constitutional scholar argued that the executive branch had systematically assumed airs over the past decade, arrogating to itself legislative prerogatives that the founding framework had deliberately reserved for Parliament. 3. The visiting dignitary’s aide was observed assuming airs throughout the diplomatic reception, directing junior embassy staff with an imperious manner entirely disproportionate to his own rank within the delegation’s formal hierarchy.

Solution

“Assume airs” means to behave in a manner that is artificially superior or pretentiously self-important — to adopt an attitude of false dignity or inflated self-importance that one’s actual position or merit does not warrant. The idiom specifically requires that the subject is behaving with affected superiority toward other people in a social or professional context. Sentence 1 uses the idiom correctly. The department head adopts an attitude of self-importance — “airs of authority” — that his actual standing does not justify. This is precisely the meaning of “assume airs”: affected superiority disproportionate to one’s real standing.  Sentence 2 uses the idiom incorrectly. “Assumed airs” in this sentence is used to describe an institutional power grab — the executive branch arrogating legislative authority. “Assume airs” is an idiom about personal pretension and affected social behaviour — it cannot be applied to the structural usurpation of constitutional powers by an institution. The correct expression here would be “assumed authority” or “arrogated powers.” Applying the idiom to an institution’s constitutional conduct fundamentally misuses its meaning.  Sentence 3 uses the idiom correctly. The aide adopts an imperious manner “entirely disproportionate to his own rank” — a textbook instance of assuming airs: affecting a superiority of manner that one’s actual position does not support, directed toward junior staff in a social setting.  Hence (C) Only 1 and 3 is the correct answer.