SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 7 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.

Select the option that expresses the opposite meaning of the underlined word. In front of the big screen, this behaviour is generally considered taboo.

(a)Prescription
(b)Obedience
(c)Promotion
(d)Acceptable

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Taboo is used here as a predicate adjective: the behaviour is 'considered taboo', that is, forbidden by social custom. Its opposite in that slot is acceptable — permitted by the same custom.

Word class settles it as firmly as meaning does. Only option (d) is an adjective; prescription, obedience and promotion are nouns, and 'considered prescription' is not English.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Prescription — Prescription is a noun for a doctor's written instruction, or more broadly a rule laid down. A rule is not the opposite of a prohibition, and a noun cannot fill this adjective slot.
(b)
Obedience — Obedience is a noun meaning compliance with an order — the opposite of disobedience, not of taboo. The sentence describes behaviour being judged, not anyone obeying.
(c)
Promotion — Promotion is a noun for advancement or active encouragement. Promoting a behaviour and finding it permitted are different claims, and only the second is the opposite of taboo.

Concept

An antonym item that underlines a word inside a sentence is asking for a replacement, not for a dictionary opposite. Two filters apply, and the second is the one candidates skip.

Filter one is meaning: taboo means prohibited by social custom, so its opposite lies on the permitted-to-forbidden scale.

Filter two is word class and slot. The underlined word follows 'is considered', which takes an adjective or a noun phrase, and the replacement must survive in that position. Read the option back into the sentence before you commit.

The sentence itself is oddly worded — 'In front of the big screen' — but nothing in it changes the answer. The judgement 'considered taboo' is the only part the item depends on.

Key facts

Taboo means banned or restricted by social or religious custom.
Acceptable means able to be permitted or agreed to.
In the frame 'is considered X', X must be an adjective or a noun phrase.
The word taboo came into English from Tongan tabu.

Study next

Antonyms tested inside a sentence rather than as bare wordsWord class as a filter for adjective slots after seem, become and considerNoun and adjective pairs: acceptance and acceptable, obedience and obedient

Common traps

Picking a noun that sounds like an opposite without testing it in the sentence.
Treating Obedience as the opposite of a prohibition — its opposite is defiance.
Hunting for meaning in 'the big screen' when the antonym does not depend on it.

The stem underlines one word in a sentence and asks for its opposite, so the answer has to fit the grammar as well as reverse the sense. The same stem set 'vouch' → Invalidate at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, EC Q3.

A bare-word version with no sentence at all appears at EC Q19 of this 26 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper: Insert → Remove.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.