NDA (II) 2022 GAT Q12: Sheela appeared to be

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2022 GAT Q12?

C. Correct — C, displeased. Said of a person, 'vexed' means annoyed or irritated, and 'displeased' names that same state of mind. The subject decides which sense applies: it is Sheela who appears vexed, so the feeling reading holds rather than the other one the word carries.

NDA (II) 2022 General Ability Test · Question 12 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

Sheela appeared to be vexed.

(a)clear
(b)calm
(c)displeased
(d)uncomplicated

Answer

Why

Correct — C, displeased. Said of a person, 'vexed' means annoyed or irritated, and 'displeased' names that same state of mind. The subject decides which sense applies: it is Sheela who appears vexed, so the feeling reading holds rather than the other one the word carries.

Why the others are wrong

(a)clear — 'Clear' answers the second sense of 'vexed', used of a problem that is difficult and much argued over — and even there it would be the opposite, not the equivalent.
(b)calm — 'Calm' describes an untroubled state, the reverse of being annoyed.
(d)uncomplicated — 'Uncomplicated' again answers the difficult-question sense of 'vexed', and it too reverses that sense instead of matching it.

Concept

A synonym item on 'vexed' as it applies to a person — annoyed or irritated — whose nearest equivalent is 'displeased'.

'Vexed' leads two lives. A person who is vexed is annoyed; a question that is vexed has been long disputed and stays hard to settle, as in the vexed question of water sharing. Two of the four options are drawn from that second life, and both of them reverse it anyway. Reading the subject of the sentence first removes the ambiguity in one step.

Key facts

'Vex' means to annoy or trouble someone; the noun formed from it is vexation.
A vexed question is one that is difficult and much debated.
Irked, nettled, piqued and annoyed all sit close to 'vexed' in the feeling sense.

Study next

Annoyance vocabulary — vexed, irked, nettled, piqued, exasperatedWords whose sense shifts with the subject they describeReading the subject before choosing among sensesVerb and noun pairs such as vex and vexation, annoy and annoyance

Common traps

Choosing 'clear' or 'uncomplicated' by reaching for the difficult-question sense.
Choosing 'calm', which reverses the state described.

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

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Select the word nearest in meaning to 'irked'.
- (a)pleased
- (b)annoyed
- (c)amused
- (d)tired
Answer(b) annoyed — to be irked is to be mildly angered.
practice — not a real PYQ
In the phrase 'a vexed question', the word 'vexed' means
- (a)settled
- (b)simple
- (c)much disputed
- (d)forgotten
Answer(c) much disputed — used of an issue, vexed means long argued over and still unresolved.