NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 6 of 150

Correct — C, 'becoming better'. To improve is to get better, and 'becoming better' states that plainly, which is what a synonym item wants — the option that can replace the underlined word without changing what the sentence says.

• (a)mending — 'Mend' does carry a get-better sense, but its home ground is health and things that were broken — a patient is mending, a fence is mended — and it is not the ordinary word for weather conditions.
• (b)amending — To amend is to make formal changes to a text, a law or a document, so an Act is amended; weather conditions are not.
• (d)advancing — To advance is to move forward or to progress in position or time, and a thing can advance without getting any better.

'Improve' means to become or make better in quality, so the matching option has to keep both parts — a change, and a change for the better.

The first option is the interesting one. 'Mending' shares the idea of getting better, and there is an older use in which the weather mends, but the word belongs to health and repair. The key takes the plain, unambiguous equivalent, and that is the safer habit in a synonym block — where two options overlap, prefer the one that fits the given sentence without special pleading.

• 'Amend' and 'mend' come from the same Latin root meaning to correct a fault, which is why they look alike.
• 'Improve' works both with and without an object — the weather improved, and she improved her score.
• 'Advance' is about position or progress, while 'improve' is about quality.

• Picking 'mending' on the strength of the shared idea of getting better.
• Picking 'advancing' because it sounds like progress.

Asked as a synonym item — choose the word closest in meaning to the underlined word.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the phrase closest in meaning to 'improved' in 'His health improved after the surgery.'

  • (a)worsened
  • (b)got better
  • (c)stayed the same
  • (d)was examined

  Answer(b) got better — that is all 'improve' says.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the verb that fits — Parliament ______ the Act in 2005.

  • (a)mended
  • (b)amended
  • (c)improved
  • (d)advanced

  Answer(b) amended — laws and documents are amended, not mended.