Educated elimination on any antonym question is an easy way to quickly eliminate upwards of several answer choices. What's even better is that you can often eliminate answer choices without even knowing the definition of the word in all capital letters. For example, consider the following antonym question:
So assume that you don't know the definition of the word frigid -- which, by the way, means very cold. Looking at the answer choices, notice that they all are adjectives, and so that's one clue that the word in all capital letters is an adjective, also. Going through the answer choices, take note that the word silvery has no clear opposite; something that is non-silver? Ehh, that sounds a bit odd, and not precise enough, so eliminate the first choice. Choice 2, tepid, means warm, and you can also eliminate it from consideration because there is no clear opposite -- there is no word that means "not-warm". Likewise, the word mellow, which means calm, is a "medium" type of word, so chances are it's not the answer, but don't eliminate choice 3 quite yet. Choice 4, blistering, means very hot, while choice 5, glacial, refers to a glacier, which is a huge block of ice, and so glacial means very cold.
Notice that we were able to conclusively eliminate choices 1 and 2 without even considering the word in all capital letters, and so if we had to guess at this point, our chances of guessing are better than if there were 5 choices remaining. The antonym of frigid is blistering.
Test Tip |
Eliminate those answer choices which have no clear opposites, or which otherwise imply a "mediocre" definition. Most GER antonym words in all capital letters will be extreme words such as freezing, hot, sleepy, excited, filthy, etc., and so antonyms to such words will likewise be extreme cases, such as hot, freezing, wide awake, indifferent, sterile, etc. |