Synonyms Questions and Answers

Direction for [ Question No: 1 To 1 ] :

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

1. There is something we all want to do, although few of us readily admit it : Get rid of guests.

2. For nine months in the year, only my closest friends come to see me. Then, when temperatures start soaring in the plains, long-lost acquaintances suddenly remember that I exist, and people whom I am barely able to recognize appear at the front door, willing to have me put them up for periods ranging from six days to six weeks.

3. Occasionally, I am the master of the situation I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor. If the hopefuls start looking around for signs of these uncomfortable guests, I remark that they have all gone out for a picnic.

4. The other day I received visitors who proved to be more thick-skinned than most. The man was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of mine. I had never seen him before. But on the strength of this distant relationship, he had brought his family along.

5. I tried the usual ploy but it didn't work. The man and his family were perfectly willing to share the floor with any others who might be staying with me.

6. So I made my next move. 'I must warn you about the scorpions', I said. The scorpion-scare is effective with most people. But I was dealing with professionals. The man set his son rolling up the carpet. 'Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling', I said desperately.

7. We were now interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. It was the postman with a rejected manuscript, his arrival inspired me to greater inventiveness.

8. 'I'm terribly sorry', I said, staring hard at a rejection slip. 'I'm afraid I have to leave immediately. A paper wants me to interview the Maharishi. I hope you won't mind. Would you like the name of a good hotel ?'

9. 'Oh, don't worry about us', said the woman expansively. 'We'll look after the house while you are away.'

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

Direction for [ Question No: 2 To 2 ] :

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options.

1. There is something we all want to do, although few of us readily admit it : Get rid of guests.

2. For nine months in the year, only my closest friends come to see me. Then, when temperatures start soaring in the plains, long-lost acquaintances suddenly remember that I exist, and people whom I am barely able to recognize appear at the front door, willing to have me put them up for periods ranging from six days to six weeks.

3. Occasionally, I am the master of the situation I inform them that the cottage is already bursting, that people are sleeping on the floor. If the hopefuls start looking around for signs of these uncomfortable guests, I remark that they have all gone out for a picnic.

4. The other day I received visitors who proved to be more thick-skinned than most. The man was a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of mine. I had never seen him before. But on the strength of this distant relationship, he had brought his family along.

5. I tried the usual ploy but it didn't work. The man and his family were perfectly willing to share the floor with any others who might be staying with me.

6. So I made my next move. 'I must warn you about the scorpions', I said. The scorpion-scare is effective with most people. But I was dealing with professionals. The man set his son rolling up the carpet. 'Sometimes centipedes fall from the ceiling', I said desperately.

7. We were now interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. It was the postman with a rejected manuscript, his arrival inspired me to greater inventiveness.

8. 'I'm terribly sorry', I said, staring hard at a rejection slip. 'I'm afraid I have to leave immediately. A paper wants me to interview the Maharishi. I hope you won't mind. Would you like the name of a good hotel ?'

9. 'Oh, don't worry about us', said the woman expansively. 'We'll look after the house while you are away.'

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

Direction for [ Question No: 3 To 3 ] :

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 similar in meaning to the word as used in the passage ?

Direction for [ Question No: 4 To 4 ] :

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

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: 5 To 5 ] :

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

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: 6 To 6 ] :

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

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: 7 To 7 ] :

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

Legends will tell you that flamingoes are no ordinary visitors to Kachchh. They were the honoured guests of King Lakho and he had forbidden the hunting of flamingoes, which came to Kachchh from various parts of the world every year to breed. For centuries, the region had been a haven for the migratory bird. Today, Flamingo City, an island in the middle of the Rann of Kachchh, known the world over as one of the biggest breeding grounds of the Greater Flamingo, is strewn with bodies of hundreds of flamingo chicks. The parents of these chicks have fled the island due to lack of food. Zooplanktons, algae and the small fish that these birds survive on are dying due to a sudden increase in the salinity of the Rann waters. One can even see dead fish floating. Flamingoes need salt-encrusted, damp mud to build nests. The place where they build their nests has to be inaccessible to predatory cats and birds. It should also have sufficient food. The right mix of sweet and brackish water in the Rann is crucial for the proliferation of planktons and algae that the flamingoes feed on. Faced with starvation, flamingoes have fled the island leaving their chicks to fend for themselves. Till date, around a thousand flamingoes have died.

Maharaj Kumarshi Himmatsinghji, a member of the royal family of Kachchh and an expert on the birds of Kachchh, traces the problem of increased salinity in the Rann waters to the construction of dams on rivers that flow into the region. He emphasises that efforts should be made to ensure that at least some water flows into the Rann. In fact, over the years, the number of flamingoes coming to the island has decreased because of the change in salinity of the Rann water. In 1945, Salim Ali, the late ornithologist, had found 5 lakh birds on the island. Since then, the number has not gone above 2.2 lakh. However, the studies carried out on the Flamingo City so far cannot be taken as 100 percent accurate.

Direction for [ Question No: 8 To 9 ] :

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

Direction for [ Question No: 10 To 10 ] :

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