SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 20 of 98

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 6 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 word OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word in the given sentence. Feeling discouraged, she finally finds the motivation for pursing her goal.

(a)energetic
(b)inspired
(c)disappointed
(d)admired

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
The underlined word is discouraged — drained of the will to carry on. Its opposite has to restore that will, not simply name some other pleasant state.

inspired does exactly that: filled with the impulse to act. The sentence confirms it, because the clause that follows says she finally finds the motivation for pursing her goal, and being inspired is what having that motivation feels like.

So option (b) is the antonym the sentence sets up.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
energetic — energetic is the opposite of tired or listless, which is physical drive rather than will. A person can be energetic and discouraged at the same time.
(c)
disappointed — disappointed is a near-synonym of discouraged, on the same side of the feeling. The item asks for the reverse, and this option merely restates the underlined word.
(d)
admired — admired describes how other people regard her, not how she feels about her own goal, so it changes whose state is being measured.

Concept

An antonym item is decided in two steps.

First fix the sense the underlined word has in this sentence. discouraged is the loss of the will to continue — not sadness, and not fatigue.

Then find the option that reverses that exact sense. The option list is stocked with words from the same emotional neighbourhood, so matching on mood rather than on meaning leaves you guessing between two.

The sentence is the tie-breaker. It hands you motivation, and inspired is the state of having it.

The paper prints pursing where pursuing is meant. Read past it — the misprint does not change what the antonym has to do, and reproducing it here is deliberate.

Key facts

discouraged means having lost the will or confidence to continue.
inspired means filled with the urge to act, which is the reverse of that loss.
disappointed belongs beside discouraged in sense, not against it.

Study next

Finding an antonym inside a synonym cluster: discouraged, dejected, dispirited, demoralisedAdjectives formed from verbs of feeling: inspire, motivate, disheartenReading an antonym in its sentence rather than in isolation

Common traps

Picking disappointed because it feels like the emotional opposite of a positive word
Ignoring the second half of the sentence, which names the motivation being restored

In the items linked here SSC plants a near-synonym of the underlined word among the four options.

The mirror of this one is asked 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.8, where the antonym of elated is keyed as discouraged against proud, delighted and cheerful. 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.12 sets Sad against upbeat, Excited and Joyful.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.