Question
Choose the most appropriate word from the options given below to complete the following sentence.
He could not understand the judges awarding her the first prize, because he thought that her performance was quite __________.
Official answer and solution
- Official answer
- C
- From
- Official GATE 2014 answer key
Solution
Use the contrast indicated by 'could not understand awarding her the first prize' to select the word with negative or unimpressive connotation.
The sentence states that he could not understand why the judges gave her the first prize. This implies that in his opinion, her performance was unimpressive or of ordinary quality.
Among the choices:
- 'superb' and 'exhilarating' are highly positive words that would justify a first prize, contradicting his confusion.
- 'medium' is not typically used as an adjective describing the quality of an artistic performance.
- 'mediocre' means of only average quality and not very good, which fits the context appropriately.
C
Choosing positive adjectives without noticing that the speaker disagreed with the first prize award.
The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.
Source
- Paper
- GATE 2014 Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) Session 1
- Question
- 2 of 65, printed as GA Q.2
- Section
- General Aptitude
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