SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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.

Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the word in bold. Elisabeth stood at the piano, which did nothing to allay his anxiety.

(a)aggravate
(b)mitigate
(c)simplify
(d)mollify

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The word in bold is allay — to make a fear, doubt or anxiety less intense; to calm or relieve it.

Its opposite must push the feeling the other way, and aggravate does exactly that: to make a condition or a problem worse.

Read the line back: nothing Elisabeth did reduced his anxiety, and the word for increasing it is aggravate.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
mitigate — Mitigate is a synonym, not an opposite — to make something less severe, the same direction as "allay". It is planted because it sits in the same field and looks suitably formal.
(c)
simplify — Simplify applies to tasks and explanations, not feelings — to make something easier to do or to understand. It neither matches nor opposes "allay".
(d)
mollify — Mollify also lowers the temperature: to soothe someone's anger, to appease them. A second synonym set as a decoy.

Concept

Antonym items routinely stack the options with synonyms of the target word, so recognising the field is not enough — you have to fix the direction.

"Allay" belongs to the reduce-a-negative-feeling family: assuage, alleviate, mitigate, mollify, appease.

Reverse the direction and you get aggravate, exacerbate, intensify, inflame, worsen.

Sort the four options by direction rather than by topic and only aggravate points the other way.

"Aggravate" is also used colloquially to mean "annoy".

The exam is using its primary sense — to make worse — and that is the sense that opposes "allay".

Key facts

Allay, assuage, alleviate, mitigate and mollify all mean "to make less intense".
Aggravate and exacerbate both mean "to make worse", and are the standard opposites of that set.
"Allay" collocates with fears, doubts, suspicions, concerns and anxiety.

Study next

The allay / assuage / alleviate / mitigate cluster and the aggravate / exacerbate cluster that opposes itVerbs that collocate with "anxiety": allay, ease, relieve, heighten, aggravate"Aggravate" in formal use (make worse) against its informal use (irritate)

Common traps

Choosing "mitigate" or "mollify" because they look like exam words — both are synonyms of the target, not opposites.
Missing the negative in "did nothing to allay" and then hunting for a word that means "reduce".

SSC prints the target word in bold inside a one-line sentence. In antonym items three of the four options are usually near-synonyms of it, so direction — not topic — decides the mark.

This shift asks for an antonym twice more: English Q.7 (inquisitive → Disinterested) and English Q.13 (Scary → comforting), both 09 Sep 2024, 12:30.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.