Select the correct ANTONYM of the underlined word to fill in the blank and complete the following sentence. He is always active in a party but _______ in the class.

Correct — B. The connector is but, which demands a contrast, and the word being contrasted is active. The blank therefore needs an antonym of active.

Inert means unmoving, sluggish, showing no activity — of a person, the direct opposite of active.

Active in a party, inert in the class: that reading gives option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  angry — Angry names an emotion, not the absence of activity. An angry person can be extremely active, so it does not answer the contrast that but sets up.
• (c)
  careless — Careless is about attention — it is the opposite of careful, not of active. A careless student can be the noisiest one in the room.
• (d)
  naughty — Naughty describes misbehaviour, and a naughty child in class is usually very active. It repeats the first half of the sentence instead of opposing it.

An antonym-in-a-blank item hands you the opposed word inside the sentence and a connector that warns a contrast is coming. But, yet, whereas and while all do that job.

Two steps decide it. Fix the word being opposed (active), then test each option as its opposite — not merely as a word that sounds unflattering.

That second step is the whole difficulty here: angry, careless and naughty are all negative in tone, and only inert denies activity.

Key facts

• Inert means unable or unwilling to move or act — of a person, sluggish and inactive.
• But, yet, whereas and while are the connectors that signal contrast in these items.
• A negative-sounding word is not automatically an antonym — it must deny the quality actually named.

Common traps

• Picking any unflattering word rather than the one that denies activity
• Missing the contrast connector and filling the blank with a synonym of active

No directly related past PYQ was found.