Due to the postal strike, the outgoing mail got delayed.

urgent. Urgent grades mail by priority, not by direction.

ordinary. Ordinary mail is a class of service, set against registered or express post rather than against outgoing post.

speedy. Speedy describes how fast the mail moves and again says nothing about which way it is going.

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NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 16 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Due to the postal strike, the <u>outgoing</u> mail got delayed.

Q: What is the answer to NDA (I) 2018 GAT Q16?

B. Correct: B, 'incoming'. Of post, calls and messages, 'outgoing' means going out from a place and 'incoming' means coming into it; the two are the settled pair for direction.

(a)urgent
(b)incoming
(c)ordinary
(d)speedy

Answer

Why

Correct: B, 'incoming'. Of post, calls and messages, 'outgoing' means going out from a place and 'incoming' means coming into it; the two are the settled pair for direction.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
urgent: Urgent grades mail by priority, not by direction.
(c)
ordinary: Ordinary mail is a class of service, set against registered or express post rather than against outgoing post.
(d)
speedy: Speedy describes how fast the mail moves and again says nothing about which way it is going.

Concept

'Outgoing' has more than one sense (mail that is going out, an official who is leaving office, and a person who is sociable) and each has its own opposite.

Three options grade mail by urgency or by class and only one names a direction, so identifying the axis of the underlined word does the work. Had the sentence been about a person's nature, the opposite would have been 'reserved' or 'shy'; had it been about an office-bearer, it would have been 'incoming' again, as in the outgoing and incoming presidents.

Key facts

'Outgoing' also means sociable and friendly, whose opposite is reserved or withdrawn.
An outgoing officer is the one about to leave a post, and the successor is the incoming one.
'Outgoings' as a plural noun means money going out: expenses.

Study next

Words with several senses, each carrying its own oppositeDirection prefixes: in-, out-, up-, down-Vocabulary of the post: registered, express, parcel, frankingFixing the axis of the underlined word before comparing options

Common traps

Grading the mail by urgency instead of by direction.
Reaching for 'shy' or 'reserved' by reading the personality sense.

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

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice, not a real PYQ
Choose the word most opposite in meaning to 'outgoing' in 'an outgoing personality'.
- (a)friendly
- (b)reserved
- (c)cheerful
- (d)generous
Answer(b) reserved: in this sense outgoing means sociable.
practice, not a real PYQ
Choose the word most opposite in meaning to 'export'.
- (a)transport
- (b)import
- (c)report
- (d)support
Answer(b) import: the prefixes ex- and im- carry the two directions.

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