Q1: Synonyms and Antonyms (20 MCQs)

Understanding the topic

The 2024 vocabulary set is noticeably kinder than 2025's, built from words that appear in ordinary academic reading rather than from dictionary curiosities.

Part (a): Choose the word most similar in meaning

1. UBIQUITOUS: (B) Present everywhere · 2. PERNICIOUS: (B) Harmful · 3. MELLIFLUOUS: (B) Smooth and sweet-sounding

4. EPHEMERAL: (C) Short-lived · 5. ASTUTE: (D) Insightful · 6. ENTHRALL: (B) Captivate

7. SYCOPHANT: (D) Flatterer · 8. ASSUAGE: (C) Soothe · 9. RETICENT: (D) Reserved

10. INCESSANT: (C) Persistent

Part (b): Choose the word most opposite in meaning

11. ESOTERIC: (D) Common · 12. SQUALID: (D) Clean · 13. TACITURN: (A) Loquacious

14. CONSTRICT: (C) Expand · 15. LOQUACIOUS: (B) Silent · 16. INDOLENT: (B) Active

17. COALESCE: (C) Disperse · 18. RANCOR: (D) Amicability · 19. ACQUIESCE: (B) Resist

20. DEBILITATE: (C) Strengthen

How this set is built

Look at question 15 and question 13 together. LOQUACIOUS is the answer to one and the question in the other, which tells you something useful about how these papers are assembled: a small pool of words is reused across years and even within a paper. Learning a word properly, in both directions, is worth more than recognising it in one.

Notice also the structure of each item. Three options usually cluster together in meaning and one stands apart. In question 18, animosity, bitterness and hostility are near neighbours, so amicability is the odd one and therefore the antonym. When a word is unfamiliar, find the cluster first and answer the odd one out.