SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word. Reluctant

(a)Beautiful
(b)Desperate
(c)Obedient
(d)Enthusiastic

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Reluctant means unwilling and hesitant, holding back from doing something.

Its opposite therefore has to be about willingness, and enthusiastic is willingness at its positive end: keen, eager, glad to act.

Option (d) reverses the exact quality the word carries. 'Willing' would be the plainest antonym; enthusiastic lies in the same direction, further along the same scale.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Beautiful — Beautiful describes appearance. Reluctance is an attitude towards an action, so the two words never meet on any common scale.
(b)
Desperate — Desperate means driven by despair or extreme urgency. A desperate person may act very willingly, so the word names the pressure behind an act, not the willingness to perform it.
(c)
Obedient — Obedient means doing as one is told, and is opposed by 'disobedient'. Someone can obey while still being reluctant, which shows the two words measure different things.

Concept

An antonym item on a bare word tests the core sense, with no sentence to narrow it. Reluctant is from Latin reluctari, to struggle against: the picture inside the word is resistance, someone pulling back.

So the opposite has to be a word for going forward willingly. English lays these out on a ladder — averse, unwilling, hesitant, reluctant at one end; willing, eager, enthusiastic, keen at the other.

When the plainest opposite is missing from the options, take the word that is on the correct scale rather than one that merely feels negative. Beautiful, desperate and obedient each belong to a different scale altogether.

Key facts

Reluctant means unwilling or hesitant to do something.
It descends from Latin reluctari, to struggle against.
Enthusiastic means full of eager enjoyment or interest.
Obedient is opposed by disobedient, which concerns compliance rather than willingness.

Study next

Antonym items where the exact opposite is absent and the nearest scale-mate winsWillingness vocabulary: averse, disinclined, loath, eager, avidNegative prefixes that build antonyms: un-, dis-, in-, non-

Common traps

Hunting for 'willing' and, on not finding it, choosing a word from another scale.
Reading reluctant as 'disobedient' and answering with obedient.
Treating 'desperate' as an intensity opposite of hesitancy.

The bare-word antonym is asked in the same shape at English Q.6 here, where 'Candid' is keyed to 'Dishonest'.

When the word is planted in a sentence instead, the sentence narrows which sense is being tested: 'inquisitive' at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.7 is keyed to 'Disinterested'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.