NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 15 of 146

Correct — B, 'coward'. In this line 'the brave' stands for brave people, so its opposite is the word for a person who lacks courage, and that word is 'coward'.

• (a)ugly person — Reverses the wrong word — 'ugly' is the opposite of 'the fair', which here means the beautiful.
• (c)jealous person — Names a fault of feeling rather than the absence of courage.
• (d)weak person — Opposes physical strength; a physically weak person may still be brave.

'Brave' is a word about courage, so its opposite must be about the want of courage and not about looks, strength or temper.

The line is the chorus of John Dryden's ode 'Alexander's Feast', where 'the fair' means the beautiful — the woman whose favour is the prize. The item plays on that second word, and 'ugly person' is a genuine opposite, only of the wrong one. Working out which word carries the underline is half the marks in an item like this.

• 'The brave', 'the rich' and 'the young' are adjectives used with 'the' to mean whole classes of people.
• 'Fair' in older English means beautiful, a sense that survives in 'a fair maiden'.
• The line comes from Dryden's ode 'Alexander's Feast; or, the Power of Music', written in 1697.

• Answering for 'the fair' when the underline is on 'the brave'.
• Treating 'weak' as the opposite of 'brave'.

Asked as an antonym item on one word of a well-known line of verse.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In 'the rich should help the poor', the words 'the rich' and 'the poor' are

  • (a)verbs
  • (b)adjectives used as nouns
  • (c)adverbs
  • (d)pronouns

  Answer(b) adjectives used as nouns — with 'the' they stand for whole classes of people.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which word is opposite in meaning to 'valiant'?

  • (a)brave
  • (b)gallant
  • (c)cowardly
  • (d)loyal

  Answer(c) cowardly — 'brave' and 'gallant' are synonyms of 'valiant'.