SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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 word in bold. Many people fought to abolish slavery during the Civil War.

(a)damage
(b)terminate
(c)kill
(d)establish

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Abolish means to put a formal end to a system, practice or institution — slavery, a tax, a law.

Its opposite must therefore run the other way on the same axis: to bring such a thing into being. That is establish, option (d).

Substitute and check. Many people fought to establish slavery reverses the sentence, which is what an antonym is supposed to do. The other three keep the sentence pointed at ending or harming.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
damage — Damage means to harm something partly. It is neither the total ending abolish names nor its reverse, and it leaves the sentence on the destructive side.
(b)
terminate — Terminate means to bring to an end. That is a synonym of abolish, sitting where the antonym should be — the option to strike out first, not to reach for.
(c)
kill — Kill ends a life, not an institution. It does not collocate with slavery in formal English, and it still points at ending rather than away from it.

Concept

Three of these four options mean ending or harming. When the list crowds one side like that, the odd direction is where the antonym lives.

The second test is the object type. Abolish takes an institution or a practice: you abolish slavery, capital punishment, a levy. Establish takes exactly the same kind of object, which is why the pair is clean.

Kill and damage fail that test as well as the direction test, since neither takes an institution naturally.

The word is in bold inside a sentence, so read the sentence before choosing. It is the object, slavery, that tells you abolish is being used of an institution rather than of an object being destroyed.

Key facts

Abolish means to end a system, practice or institution formally and completely.
Establish means to set up or bring into being, so it reverses abolish exactly.
Terminate means to bring to an end and so stands on the same side as abolish.

Study next

Verb pairs that reverse each other: abolish and establish, forbid and allow, deny and admitCollocation as a test, checking which objects a verb naturally takesWords for ending: abolish, terminate, repeal, revoke, rescind

Common traps

Choosing terminate because it is the most formal-sounding option on the list
Reading kill as the strongest option and mistaking strength for oppositeness
Testing the bold word on its own instead of substituting into the sentence

Here the list carries a synonym of the bold word standing beside its antonym, so direction — not strength — decides the mark.

The clearest parallel is 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.9: Forbid, keyed Allow, with Prohibit sitting there as the synonym trap.

Also asked 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2 (grudge in bold, keyed benevolence) and 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.3 (cruel underlined, keyed Kind).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.