Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word. If you want to be a good detective, it helps to have an inquisitive nature.

Correct — D. Inquisitive means eager to find things out — curious, questioning — and the sentence fixes that sense by tying it to being a good detective.

Its opposite must be the absence of that curiosity, and only disinterested carries not interested, indifferent.

A disinterested detective would not ask the next question, which is the exact reverse of what the sentence recommends — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Comprehensive — Comprehensive names scope — covering everything. Scope is not an attitude, so it cannot be the opposite of a word describing temperament.
• (b)
  Itemised — Itemised names a format: broken up and listed entry by entry, as in an itemised bill. Wrong category to be an antonym here.
• (c)
  Intrusive — Intrusive sits on the same side as inquisitive — curiosity pushed where it is not welcome. That intensifies the word rather than reversing it.

Antonym items are lost by matching topic instead of meaning. All four options could appear in a paragraph about an investigation, so topic gives no signal at all.

Ask instead what inquisitive does: it names an attitude — wanting to know. The antonym has to be another attitude word on the same axis, which strikes out comprehensive (scope) and itemised (format) immediately.

That leaves an attitude that intensifies curiosity against one that removes it, and only the second can be an opposite.

Key facts

• Inquisitive means curious, eager to know.
• Disinterested has two recorded senses — impartial, and not interested.
• Careful writers prefer uninterested for the 'not interested' sense.
• Intrusive lies on the same side as inquisitive: curiosity that oversteps.

Common traps

• Reading disinterested only as impartial and rejecting it on that basis
• Choosing intrusive because it feels negative while inquisitive feels positive

No directly related past PYQ was found.