NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 12 of 150

Correct — D, 'sobriety'. Sobriety is the settled, level-headed temper in which a crowd stays measured and nothing gets out of hand — the very quality whose absence turns a festival into the scene the President was condemning. Set against an outbreak of violence, it names the opposite condition rather than merely the checking of an impulse.

• (a)reason — Reason is the faculty of thinking things through; violence is a way of acting, and the two are not a matched pair.
• (b)instigation — Instigation is the stirring up of trouble, so it lies on the same side as violence and moves towards it rather than away.
• (c)restraint — Restraint is the holding back of an impulse that is already there, and it can be imposed from outside; the key marks 'sobriety', which names the calm temper in which the impulse does not arise at all.

'Sobriety' means seriousness, moderation and freedom from excess — the composed conduct expected of people at a public gathering.

This is the hardest item in the block, and it is worth being honest about why. 'Restraint' is a strong rival, and a candidate who marked it was reading the same axis of calm against disorder; the official key nevertheless settles on 'sobriety'. The line the key draws is between a temper and an act — sobriety describes how a crowd is, restraint describes something it does to itself once trouble is already stirring. Where two options sit on the same axis, the one naming the underlying state usually carries the day.

• 'Sobriety' covers both the absence of intoxication and, more broadly, seriousness and moderation of conduct.
• 'Instigate' means to stir someone up to act, which places it with violence rather than against it.
• In an antonym block the printed directions ask for the word most opposite in meaning, which can be the best available reverse rather than a dictionary-perfect one.

• Settling on 'restraint' without testing it against the other calm word in the list.
• Choosing 'reason', which opposes violence only loosely and belongs to thinking rather than to conduct.

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 'sobriety'.

  • (a)moderation
  • (b)excess
  • (c)seriousness
  • (d)silence

  Answer(b) excess — sobriety is moderation and freedom from excess.

• practice — not a real PYQ

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

  • (a)provoke
  • (b)discourage
  • (c)announce
  • (d)organise

  Answer(b) discourage — to instigate is to stir someone up to act.