NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 14 of 149

Correct — B, 'ominous'. 'Auspicious' means promising good fortune and 'ominous' means threatening bad fortune, so the pair reverses cleanly. The sentence treats the birth as a sign of good things to come, and 'ominous' would make it a sign of the opposite.

• (a)precious — Precious means highly valued, which agrees with the happy tone of the sentence rather than opposing it.
• (c)useless — Useless denies value or purpose, and an auspicious event is not one that is useful, so this reverses the wrong property.
• (d)unforgettable — Unforgettable measures how strongly something stays in the memory, which is unrelated to good or ill fortune.

'Auspicious' means giving a sign of future success, while 'ominous' gives a sign of coming trouble.

Both words descend from the old practice of reading signs — one reads a favourable omen, the other a threatening one. Fixing that shared idea makes the pairing obvious and blocks the pull of 'useless', which reverses value instead of fortune.

• 'Auspicious' derives from the Roman auspex, who read omens from the flight of birds.
• 'Ominous' is built directly on the Latin omen.
• Indian English keeps 'auspicious' in daily use for a favourable day or hour.

• Choosing 'useless' because it is the most negative-sounding option.
• Reversing value when the word in fact concerns fortune.

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 'auspicious'.

  • (a)lucky
  • (b)favourable
  • (c)unlucky
  • (d)joyful

  Answer(c) unlucky — auspicious means promising good fortune.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word nearest in meaning to 'ominous'.

  • (a)cheering
  • (b)threatening
  • (c)ordinary
  • (d)certain

  Answer(b) threatening — ominous suggests that something bad is on the way.