SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 5 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 given word. Scary

(a)awful
(b)bright
(c)comforting
(d)Pristine

Answer

Why

Correct — C. 'Scary' means causing fear or alarm, so its opposite must take fear away and put you at ease — 'comforting'.

Test it in a frame: a scary story frightens you, a comforting story reassures you. The two sit at opposite ends of one scale, fear.

The other three options measure something else — badness, light, cleanliness — and one of them leans the same way as 'scary' rather than against it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
awful — 'Awful' means very bad or dreadful, which puts it beside 'scary' rather than opposite it — in an antonym item the option nearest in meaning is the trap.
(b)
bright — 'Bright' measures light or intelligence, not fear. A bright room may feel cheerful, but cheerfulness is not the opposite of fear — the antonym has to sit on the same scale.
(d)
Pristine — 'Pristine' means spotlessly clean or unspoilt — a scale of condition, not of feeling. A pristine beach can still be frightening after dark, so the two words are not opposites.

Concept

An antonym must be the opposite on the same dimension. 'Scary' lies on the dimension of fear: at one end things that frighten, at the other things that soothe.

A merely pleasant word is not automatically the antonym of an unpleasant one, because it may be measuring something else entirely.

The dependable method is substitution in a short frame: 'scary noise' becomes 'comforting noise' and the sense flips, while 'pristine noise' does not even hold together.

The paper prints 'Pristine' with a capital P while the other three options are lower case. The capitalisation carries no meaning for the answer.

Key facts

'Scary' means causing fear or alarm.
'Comforting' means giving reassurance and easing fear — the opposite of 'scary'.
'Awful' is a near-synonym of 'scary' in the sense 'dreadful', the same side of the scale.
'Pristine' means in original, unspoilt condition, and is not an emotion word at all.

Study next

Antonym pairs on the fear scale: terrifying/reassuring, alarming/soothingSeparating near-synonyms from antonyms inside one SSC option setCondition vocabulary: pristine, immaculate, squalid, dilapidated

Common traps

Treating any pleasant-sounding word as the antonym of an unpleasant one.
Falling for 'awful', which shares the register of 'scary' and is the classic same-side decoy.

This shift sets three antonym items and grades them: the bare word here, the underlined 'inquisitive' at English Q.7 (answer 'Disinterested'), and 'allay' at English Q.20 (answer 'aggravate'), all on 9 Sep 2024, 12:30.

Each rewards the same test — which option flips the scale.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.