Antonyms Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

My home town in the mid-1970s was a laid-back place, resembling a remote rural area, except in having some amenities. Our house was almost at one end of the town. About 15 km away, there was a small village where a fair was held for a week every year during the harvest season. The village deity was worshipped by many from the places in the vicinity.

Devotees thronged the fair not only for divine blessings but also for watching street-shows and other entertainment events. Only a mud track led to the village and everyone reached there by walking or on bullock carts.

My father, an advocate by profession, was popular among the villagers. His clients from the place used to arrange bullock carts for us and a few family friends and relatives to attend the fair.

The journey would start early in the morning. We children will be in a separate cart. I used to eagerly look forward to this occasion every year as though it was a journey of a life-time and worth enjoying every minute of it. Money saved for this fair would be tucked firmly in my pockets during the journey. Whenever the cart jerked or sped away, I would hold my pockets tightly so that coins would not spill out.

The crowd at the temple in the foothill used to be highly unorganised, especially the food counter where prasadam was served. Hot and spicy puffed rice and tea made of jaggery were the delectable combination of food and beverage every devotee craved for.

Going to the temple used to be the last priority of us children. Fearing elders' wrath, we would hurriedly finish the formality of darshan.

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

He must have seen us coming from some distance. By the time he loomed up in front of my headlights, the arms in the snow-caked overcoat were flailing desperately like windmills.

Pat gave a little gasp and I braked at once, though gently, or I might have followed his car into the ditch. But immediately I had second thoughts; there had been one or two nasty cases of hold-up in the papers recently. I wasn't going to take any chance with Pat, my sister, there. I changed down the gear and made to drive round him.

Pat was horrified. 'Aren't you stopping, Bill ?' I shook my head. 'Too risky'.

It was then that I saw the car. It had skidded right across the road and was hanging nose down in the deep ditch. I braked again and brought the Mini-Moris gradually to a stop.

I slid back my window as he looked in and then I saw that he was bleeding from a cut in his cheek.

'Anybody else in the car ?'

'No, on my own. If you could give me a lift'.

I nodded and he got into the back and slammed the door.

'Sorry about this, folks. I was beginning to think I was stuck there for the night. Not that you would call it a busy road, is it ?'

'Not at twelve o'clock at night', Pat said, turning round to smile at him. 'We have been to a dance in Boling ford. Bill didn't want to go, but I was keen. He isn't a bad brother, really'.

Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

Directions : Read the passage given below and answer the questions by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :

With more then 3,000 languages currently spoken, English undoubtedly is amongst the richest of all languages. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about half a million words of which only 2,00,000 are frequently used. This is because, the balance 3,00,000 words are technical and not found in ordinary dictionaries. The only language that can come near English is Chinese.

Apart from being the richest language, English also boasts of being one of the most widely spoken, second only to Mandarin Chinese. This remarkable achievement is only because of the one thing that we all love to do - copy ! 'Siesta' for example is of Spanish origin. 'Sputnik' as you must be aware of, has a Russian origin. 'Restaurant' is from France and 'Super' from Germany. Even before the birth of the 'genius' of 'drama', William Shakespeare, the words 'genius' and 'drama' were adapted from Greek. Now, you must be wondering if English has anything original about it. Well, find it out ! Did you ever try to find out how many different words of English we use in our daily life ? Try to guess and then read on. A modern novelist has a vocabulary of anywhere between ten to fifteen thousand words.

William Shakespeare used thirty thousand words and the only writer to come close to him was James Joyce in 'Ulysses'. We normally have a vocabulary of about ten thousand words of which only five thousand are used in everyday conversation. This leads to a limited variety of words. This is because we repeat a lot of words. In conversation and in writing, it is 'the'. (Try counting it in this article and you will have proof of it.)

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

Yet as soon as she saw him, she did not look as Alfred thought she would look : she smiled, her blue eyes never wavered, and with a calmness and dignity that made them forget that her clothes seemed to have been thrown on her, she put out her hand to Mr. Carr and said politely, "I'm Mrs. Higgins. I'm Alfred's mother."

Mr. Carr was a bit embarrassed by her lack of terror and her simplicity and he hardly knew what to say to her, so she asked, "Is Alfred in trouble ?"

"He is. He's been taking things from the store. I caught him red-handed. Little things like compacts and toothpaste and lipsticks. Stuff he can sell easily," the proprietor said.

Mrs. Higgins put out her hand and touched Sam Carr's arm with an understanding gentleness, and speaking as though afraid of disturbing him, she said, "If you would only listen to me before doing anything". Her simple earnestness made her shy; her humility made her falter and look away, but in a moment she was smiling gravely again and she said with a kind of patient dignity, "What do you intend to do, Mr. Carr ?"

"I am going to get a cop. That's what I ought to do."

"Yes, I suppose so. It's not for me to say, because he's my son. Yet I sometimes think a little good advice is the best thing for a boy when he is at a certain period in his life," she said.

Alfred couldn't understand his mother's quiet composure, for if they had been at home and someone had suggested that he was going to be arrested, he knew she would be in a rage and would cry out against him.

Direction for [ Question No: 5 To 5 ] :

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options :

1. The study of handwriting is known as graphology and it has been practised for hundreds of years. Professional forensic graphologists have worked on many court cases to use handwriting to link suspects with crimes.

2. Handwriting is particularly important legally in the case of signatures and proving whether signatures are real or forged can be pivotal. Graphologists also work to verify whether autographs are real or fake.

3. Some handwriting analysts also study writing samples to determine personality types and some businesses commission this analysis before hiring new employees. The method is even sometimes used to help couples see if they are compatible. According to graphologists, there is very little you can't tell from a persons' handwriting.

4. From psychological conditions like high blood pressure and schizophrenia to personality traits like dominance and aggression : if you write by hand, graphologists can analyse you.

5. Everything from the size of your letters to how closely you space words can reveal intricate details of your personality. In general, the size of your letters can reveal whether you are shy or outgoing. Compared to a standard lined sheet of paper, if you write with tiny letters that do not reach the top line, you are likely to have a timid and introverted personality. If you write with large letters that go over the topline, you are likely to be the opposite : outgoing, confident and attention seeking.

6. Studies suggest that people who space words widely like freedom and independence, whereas those choosing to write with small spaces prefer to be among others and do not like to be alone.

Which one of the following words is opposite in meaning to the word as used in the passage ?

Direction for [ Question No: 6 To 6 ] :

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1. Each drop represents a little bit of creation and of life itself. When the monsoon brings to northern India the first rains of summer, the parched earth opens its pores and quenches its thirst with a hiss of ecstasy. After baking in the sun for the last few months, the land looks cracked, dusty and tired. Now, almost overnight, new grass springs up, there is renewal everywhere, and the damp earth releases a fragrance sweeter than any devised by man.

2. Water brings joy to earth, grass, leaf-bud, blossom, insect, bird, animal and the pounding heart of man. Small children run out of their homes to romp naked in the rain. Buffaloes, which have spent the summer listlessly around lakes gone dry, now plunge into a heaven of muddy water. Soon the lakes and rivers will overflow with the monsoon's generosity. Trekking in the Himalayan foothills, I recently walked for kilometres without encountering habitation. I was just scolding myself for not having brought along a water-bottle, when I came across a patch of green on a rock face. I parted a curtain of tender maiden hair fern and discovered a tiny spring issuing from the rock-nectar for the thirsty traveller.

3. I stayed there for hours, watching the water descend, drop by drop, into a tiny casement in the rocks. Each drop reflected creation. That same spring, I later discovered, joined other springs to form a swift, tumbling stream, which went cascading down the hill into other streams until, in the plains, it became part of a river. And that river flowed into another mightier river that kilometres later emptied into the ocean. Be like water, taught Laotzu, philosopher and founder of Taoism. Soft and limpid, it finds its way through, over or under any obstacle. It does not quarrel; it simply moves on.

Direction for [ Question No: 7 To 7 ] :

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Lack of self-control has brought grief to more people than any other shortcoming known to the human race. Every successful person must have some sort of a balance wheel for his or her emotions. When a person becomes extremely angry, certain glands triggered by negative emotions begin to empty their contents into the blood and if this is kept up for more time, it will result in serious damage to the entire system, sometimes leading to death. The blood coagulates at that time. Nature created this system for the protection of the young human race during the savage stage of development, when anger usually preceding a fight might mean opening of the veins and loss of blood.

There is a reason of developing self-control. One who lacks self-control may be easily mastered by one who has such control. Success in life is very largely a matter of harmonious negotiation with other people and this requires self-control in abundance.

The author of the 'Law of Success Philosophy' once observed a long line of angry woman in front of the 'Complaint Desk' of a large Chicago department store. The young woman who was hearing the complaints, kept cool and smiled all the time not withstanding the fact that some of the women were very abusive. One by one, this young woman directed the women to the right department and she did it with such poise that it caused the author to walk up closer where he could see just what was happening.

Direction for [ Question No: 8 To 8 ] :

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People are drawn to vegetarianism by all sorts of motives. Some of us want to live longer, healthier lives or do our part to reduce pollution. Others have made the switch because we want to preserve earth's natural resources or because we've always loved animals and are ethically opposed to eating them.

Vegetarianism promotes a natural way of life. But despite its implicit message of universal love and non-violence it has not spread as it should have. This may be because it usually is an inward-looking habit and is best cultivated in the mind.

Leading a vegetarian way of life helps the animal kingdom co-exist with man. The animals supply milk, manure and energy. This has been central to the Indian culture for thousands of years. A vegetarian life style is natural, multifaceted and helps self-preservation in a healthy way. Food and health are closely related.

Vegetarian foods provide an infinite variety of flavours whereas non-vegetarian foods have hardly any taste of their own. In fact, non-vegetarian foods have to be seasoned with ingredients from the vegetable kingdom to make them palatable.

Direction for [ Question No: 9 To 9 ] :

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Pelicans are birds. There are more than half a dozen species of pelicans. All of them have the sack for which the birds are best known all over the world. The sack is like a big bag of skin hanging under their bill, or their mouth. These large carnivorous birds use them to catch fish. Many pelicans fish by swimming in a group. They may form a line or a "U" shape and drive fish into shallow water by beating their wings on the surface. When the fish collect in the shallows, the pelicans simply scoop them up. The brown pelican, on the other hand, dives on the fish from above and traps them in its bill. Pelicans do not store fish in their pouch, but simply use it to catch them and then tip it back to drain out water and swallow the fish immediately. The American white pelican can hold some 11.5 litres of water in its bill. Young pelicans feed by sticking their bills into their parents' throats to retrieve food.

Along with giant pouch, pelicans are large birds with short legs, and they appear rather clumsy on land. Once in water, they are strong swimmers, thanks to their webbed feet. This means that webbing connects all four of their toes, even the back toe.

Pelicans are found on many of the world's coastlines and also along lakes and rivers. They travel in flocks. They also breed in groups called colonies, which typically gather on islands. The average life span of pelicans in the wild is about 10 to 25 years and their average body size is about 1.8 metres but when they open their wings their wingspan is around 3 metres. These large birds usually weigh around 13 kg.

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

Which one of the following words is opposite in meaning to the word given below?