SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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.

Identify the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the given sentence. Lady Stranleigh continued to smile at him brilliantly.

(a)Brightly
(b)Dimly
(c)Cunningly
(d)Strangely

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The underlined adverb is brilliantly, and in a sentence about a smile it carries its light sense: radiantly, with a bright warmth.

Reverse that and you need a faint, weak degree of light, which is precisely what dimly means.

Option (b) flips the axis the adverb actually sits on — brightness — rather than swapping its tone for something merely unpleasant.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Brightly — Brightly is a near-synonym of brilliantly, not its opposite. It repeats the idea of light instead of reversing it.
(c)
Cunningly — Cunningly means slyly, with hidden intent. That reverses sincerity, not brightness, so it sits on a different axis from the underlined word.
(d)
Strangely — Strangely means oddly or unfamiliarly, and its opposite is ordinary or familiar. It never becomes the opposite of a word about shining.

Concept

An antonym question is settled in two moves: fix the sense the sentence activates, then reverse that sense.

Brilliantly has two live senses — shining very brightly, and exceptionally cleverly or impressively. A smile takes the first, so the opposite you need is about weak light, and that gives dimly.

Had the sentence read he argued brilliantly, the opposite would have been poorly or feebly. The word has no single fixed antonym — the sentence chooses it.

Options sitting on a different axis altogether — motive, oddness — cannot be the answer, however negative they feel. Test each candidate against the same axis as the underlined word.

Key facts

Brilliantly means both shining very brightly and exceptionally well, and the sentence decides which sense is in play.
Dim means giving or reflecting little light, so dimly is the direct opposite of brilliantly in its light sense.
Brightly is a synonym of brilliantly and can never be its antonym.

Study next

Adverbs of manner whose opposites shift with context (faintly, feebly, dully)Words carrying a literal and a figurative sense that are tested together (brilliant, sharp, bright)Antonym items where the underlined word sits inside a sentence rather than standing alone

Common traps

Picking brightly because it is the word that looks most closely related to brilliantly
Reading brilliantly as clever and then hunting for an opposite of intelligent
Treating any unflattering adverb as an antonym when it changes a different quality

SSC underlines one word inside a full sentence and asks for its opposite, so the sentence is part of the question rather than decoration.

The same in-sentence antonym format is asked at 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8 (Success is not a destination) and at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.7 (an inquisitive nature).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.