NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 6 of 146

Correct — A, 'enormous'. 'Massive' here is a word about size — a very great rise in the population of Europe — and 'enormous' carries exactly that sense of magnitude. Put it back into the sentence and the meaning is untouched: 'an enormous rise in the population of Europe'.

• (b)erroneous — Means mistaken or full of errors; it resembles the answer in sound and in nothing else.
• (c)hazardous — Means dangerous or risky, which says nothing about how large the rise was.
• (d)perilous — Means full of peril — again a comment on danger rather than on scale.

A synonym item is settled by putting each choice back into the printed sentence; the right word is the one that leaves the meaning unchanged.

All four choices end in '-ous' and two of them nearly rhyme with the answer. That sound-alike set is the whole trap. Fix what the underlined word is doing first — 'massive' is measuring a rise — and only a word about magnitude can replace it.

• 'Massive' means very large or very heavy; used of a rise it means very great in amount.
• 'Erroneous' is built on 'error', 'hazardous' on 'hazard' and 'perilous' on 'peril'.
• Vast, immense, colossal and gigantic belong to the same magnitude family as 'enormous'.

• Picking 'erroneous' because it looks and sounds like 'enormous'.
• Choosing by the shape of the ending rather than by the meaning.

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

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which word is nearest in meaning to 'colossal'?

  • (a)careless
  • (b)huge
  • (c)curious
  • (d)costly

  Answer(b) huge — 'colossal' describes something of very great size.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which word means 'mistaken'?

  • (a)erroneous
  • (b)enormous
  • (c)erratic
  • (d)eloquent

  Answer(a) erroneous — 'erratic' means irregular and 'eloquent' means well-spoken.