The newly made road was smooth.
- (a)rutted
- (b)dangerous
- (c)winding
- (d)silken
Correct — A, rutted. A smooth road has an even surface with nothing to jolt the wheels; a rutted one is cut through with deep grooves worn by traffic. That is the same property reversed. Each of the other three reverses a different property of a road, which is exactly what makes them tempting.
- (b)dangerous — 'Dangerous' is the opposite of safe. A road can be perfectly smooth and still be dangerous, so this reverses the wrong property.
- (c)winding — 'Winding' is the opposite of straight and describes the shape of the road, not the state of its surface.
- (d)silken — 'Silken' means smooth as silk — a synonym of the tested word rather than its reverse.
An antonym item on 'smooth' as it applies to a road surface — even and free of bumps — whose reverse is 'rutted'.
A road can be described along several axes at once: surface, shape, safety and width. The sentence names only the surface, so the answer has to reverse the surface and nothing else. Test each option by asking whether a road could be smooth and still fit the word. A smooth road can be dangerous and can wind, which rules both out; it cannot be rutted.
- A rut is a long deep track cut into soft ground by the repeated passage of wheels.
- 'Silken' belongs with sleek, glassy and polished on the smooth side.
- 'Smooth' has a second sense — free from difficulty, as in a smooth journey — whose opposite is troubled or rough.
- Picking 'dangerous' or 'winding', which reverse safety and shape rather than surface.
- Picking 'silken', a synonym of the tested word.
Asked as an antonym item — choose the word opposite in meaning to the underlined word 'smooth'.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Select the word opposite in meaning to 'even' when it describes a surface.
- (a)level
- (b)bumpy
- (c)flat
- (d)plane
Answer(b) bumpy — level, flat and plane all repeat 'even' instead of reversing it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of 'rutted'.
- (a)newly paved
- (b)full of deep wheel tracks
- (c)unusually wide
- (d)brightly lit
Answer(b) full of deep wheel tracks — a rut is a groove worn by wheels.