NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 11 of 149

Correct — A, 'success'. A fiasco is a complete and usually humiliating failure, so its plain opposite is a success. This block asks for the reverse of the underlined word, not a restatement of it.

• (b)joy — Joy is a feeling, whereas a fiasco is an event that turned out badly; the opposite of an outcome has to be another outcome.
• (c)fun — Fun describes enjoyment during an activity and says nothing about whether the lecture succeeded.
• (d)disaster — This is a near-synonym of 'fiasco', so it repeats the sense instead of reversing it — the standard decoy on an antonym item.

A fiasco is a complete failure, generally a public and embarrassing one.

On an antonym item the eye is pulled towards whichever option fits the sentence most comfortably, and 'disaster' does fit — which is exactly why it is wrong. Naming the sense of the underlined word first and only then hunting its reverse keeps a candidate out of that trap.

• 'Fiasco' came into English from Italian and describes a venture that collapses embarrassingly.
• The printed directions for this block ask for the word most opposite in meaning.
• 'Disaster' and 'debacle' are synonyms of 'fiasco', never antonyms.

• Picking 'disaster' because it slots neatly into the sentence.
• Answering with a synonym when the block has asked for an antonym.

Asked as an antonym item — choose the word most opposite in meaning to the underlined word.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word most opposite in meaning to 'fiasco'.

  • (a)debacle
  • (b)triumph
  • (c)blunder
  • (d)mishap

  Answer(b) triumph — a fiasco is a total failure, so its opposite is a triumph.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word most opposite in meaning to 'debacle'.

  • (a)collapse
  • (b)rout
  • (c)victory
  • (d)ruin

  Answer(c) victory — a debacle is a crushing defeat.