NDA (II) 2022 GAT Q17: The fickle nature of humans is at times the cause of great

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2022 GAT Q17?

A. Correct — A, vacillating. 'Fickle' describes somebody whose loyalties, moods or opinions keep changing, and 'vacillating' describes exactly that wavering between one position and another. The other three miss the axis: two of them describe steadiness and the third describes cunning.

NDA (II) 2022 General Ability Test · Question 17 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

The fickle nature of humans is at times the cause of great innovations.

(a)vacillating
(b)consistent
(c)strong
(d)wily

Answer

Why

Correct — A, vacillating. 'Fickle' describes somebody whose loyalties, moods or opinions keep changing, and 'vacillating' describes exactly that wavering between one position and another. The other three miss the axis: two of them describe steadiness and the third describes cunning.

Why the others are wrong

(b)consistent — 'Consistent' means unchanging and dependable — the opposite of fickle.
(c)strong — 'Strong' measures force or resolve, not how steady a person's opinions are.
(d)wily — 'Wily' means crafty and full of tricks. Deceit is a different failing from inconstancy: a fickle person changes their mind, a wily one hides it.

Concept

A synonym item on 'fickle' — changing frequently in loyalty, mood or opinion — whose nearest equivalent among the choices is 'vacillating'.

Fickleness is about change, not about weakness and not about dishonesty, and each wrong option tests one of those confusions. The sentence adds a mild twist by presenting the trait as a source of innovation, which invites you to look for an approving word; a synonym item ignores tone and matches sense. Capricious, mercurial and inconstant belong to the same family as 'fickle' and are worth learning together.

Key facts

To vacillate is to waver between different opinions or courses of action.
Capricious, mercurial, inconstant and volatile are close relatives of 'fickle'.
Its opposites include steadfast, constant, consistent and dependable.

Study next

Inconstancy vocabulary — fickle, capricious, mercurial, volatile, inconstantSteadfast, constant, resolute and dependable as their oppositesSeparating changeability from cunning and from weaknessThe same word tested as a synonym in one paper and as an antonym in another

Common traps

Choosing 'consistent', which reverses the meaning.
Choosing 'wily' by treating unreliability and cunning as one fault.

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

Related PYQs

NDA_GAT_2021_II_Q502021Open & attempt →

Sachin is very fickle in his behaviour.

(a) stable
(b) capricious
(c) mercurial
(d) vacillating

Answer(a) stable

NDA-II 2021 set the very same word the other way round: it asked for the opposite of 'fickle' and the answer was 'stable', with 'vacillating' printed there as one of the wrong choices.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Select the word nearest in meaning to 'capricious'.
- (a)steady
- (b)unpredictable
- (c)careful
- (d)generous
Answer(b) unpredictable — a capricious person changes without warning.
practice — not a real PYQ
Select the word opposite in meaning to 'fickle'.
- (a)changeable
- (b)inconstant
- (c)steadfast
- (d)erratic
Answer(c) steadfast — the other three all agree with fickle instead of reversing it.