NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 14 of 150

Correct — C, 'industrious'. The phrase 'by temperament' fixes 'idle' in its character sense — habitually disinclined to work — and the opposite of that disposition is being industrious, or hard-working by nature. Both words describe what a person is like rather than what he happens to be doing.

• (a)employed — This reverses a different sense of 'idle', the one meaning out of work; a man can hold a job and still be lazy by nature.
• (b)occupied — Being occupied is a momentary state — busy just now — whereas 'by temperament' asks for a settled trait.
• (d)happy — Happiness is a mood and lies on an axis the underlined word never touches.

'Idle' carries three settled senses — lazy by disposition, not currently in use or at work, and without foundation, as in an idle rumour — and each has its own opposite.

Two of the wrong options are genuine antonyms of 'idle', just of the wrong sense. 'Employed' reverses the out-of-work sense and 'occupied' reverses the not-busy-now sense. The two words 'by temperament' are doing all the work in this sentence: they point at character, and only 'industrious' answers a question about character.

• An idle machine is one standing unused, which is the sense behind 'idle capacity'.
• An idle threat or idle gossip is one with nothing behind it.
• 'Industrious' means diligent and hard-working, and is unrelated in sense to 'industrial'.

• Picking 'employed' by reading 'idle' as unemployed.
• Overlooking 'by temperament', which is the only pointer to the character sense.

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 'idle' in 'He is idle by nature.'

  • (a)busy
  • (b)diligent
  • (c)hired
  • (d)restless

  Answer(b) diligent — of a person's nature, the reverse of idle is hard-working.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word most opposite in meaning to 'idle' in 'The machines lay idle for a month.'

  • (a)hardworking
  • (b)operational
  • (c)modern
  • (d)noisy

  Answer(b) operational — of a machine, idle means standing unused.