SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 3 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the option that is related to the third word in the same way as the second word is related to the first word. (The words must be considered as meaningful English words and must not be related to each other based on the number of letters/number of consonants/vowels in the word) Frivolous : Big :: Deride : ?

(a)Encourage
(b)Taunt
(c)Jeer
(d)Detest

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: the model pair opposes, it does not agree.

Frivolous means trivial, of no serious weight. Big is used here in its sense of weighty or important, so the two words sit at opposite ends of the same idea.

Deride means to mock or belittle. The word that reverses it among the four is encourage, which is to hearten or support rather than to run down.

Taunt and jeer push in the same direction as deride, and detest names a feeling rather than an act of mocking. The reversal is what the analogy asks for — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Taunt — Taunt means to jeer at someone provokingly, which is what deride already does. A synonym cannot answer a stem whose model pair moves to the opposite.
(c)
Jeer — Jeer is likewise a near synonym of deride — to shout mockingly at. It repeats the third word instead of reversing it.
(d)
Detest — Detest means to hate intensely. It names a feeling rather than the act of mocking, and hatred is not the opposite of ridicule.

Concept

A word analogy is settled by naming the relation, not by feeling which option is closest in meaning.

Here the model pair is frivolous : big. Frivolous carries the sense of slight or trifling and big the sense of large or important, so the relation is opposition.

Carry that relation, not the mood, across to deride. Deride is to laugh at scornfully, so the answer has to be the act that lifts rather than lowers.

The bracketed note in the stem closes the shortcuts. You may not match on letter counts or on vowels and consonants.

Big is doing unusual work in this pair. It is meant as important or weighty rather than large in size, and read that way its opposition to frivolous is exact.

Key facts

Frivolous means not having any serious purpose or value.
Deride means to express contempt for, to ridicule.
Encourage means to give support, confidence or hope to someone.
Taunt and jeer both mean to mock, which puts them on the same side as deride.

Study next

Antonym analogies where one member is a common word used in an uncommon senseTelling apart deride, taunt, jeer, mock and scoff by degreeThe relation types SSC uses: opposite, synonym, worker and tool, part and whole

Common traps

Testing each option against deride and picking the closest in meaning
Reading big as large in size, which hides its opposition to frivolous

SSC runs word analogies in both directions and the stem never says which. A synonym pair appears in this shift at Reasoning Q.9, Ample : Abundant :: Substantial.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.