Antonyms

Which word in the passage is opposite in meaning to ‘remain the same’?

Directions: Read the passage and answer the question that follows.

Cheese is a method to preserve milk in which cheese becomes completely different from milk. Cheese, however, has its own interesting and yummy taste. Cheese production is usually carried out with the help of bacteria (some are really good bacteria) and certain enzymes and natural acids which change the liquid milk into solid or semi-solid. The proteins and fats present in the milk are maintained by the saving action of such bacteria and enzyme products. The main ingredients which preserve cheese are salt and acids. The most important process in cheese-making, especially cheddar, which is one of its types, involves some basic steps. Bacteria and enzymes convert the lactose sugar present in milk into lactic acid. The rennet modifies milk proteins called caseinogens into insoluble casein. The casein, then turns into a gel-like product called curd. The curd stores most of the fat and calcium from the milk as well. The thick curd is pressed with a cheese press to solidify the cheese. The cheese is then stored in a dark, cool room for nine to twelve months to develop its taste and thickness by the good bacteria present. Some may have also seen holes in certain cheese. They are due to the presence of a special kind of bacteria which acts on cheese during the ripening or storage stage. Cheese-making  is a complex process, but it preserves the milk proteins and sugars which keep one healthy for long.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word ‘Ravage’ as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering the question.

There is nothing like a tropical rain forest for replacing arrogance with awe. Who could enter these primordial places, these untamed Edens, and not be wonderstruck? Dark and mysterious even in daytime, rain forests inspire respect. They are one of Nature's last frontiers, alive with flora and fauna seen rarely or never by human beings, and colonized by a handful of indigenous tribes that have had little or no contact with the outside world. Vast, fecund and biologically diverse, rain forests are bountiful and seemingly inexhaustible ecosystems that have supplied the human race with a staggering treasure trove including timber, fruit, spices and medicines. Although much more bounty lies in wait, the pace of discovery in the rain forest is naturally slow. The sheer number of plants to study is staggering and scientific experimentation takes time and money. Even when a chemical needle is found in a rain forest haystack, it still takes years to get a new drug to market.

The English naturalist and author Gerald Durrell assailed those who would ravage the rain forests loggers, ranchers and miners, for acting "with the savage, unthinking ferocity of a troupe of drunken apes in art gallery". But, he added, "whereas pictures can be repainted, tropical rain forests can't be recreated". Indeed, what could replace the wondrous electric fish of the Amazon River, the poison-sweating frogs of Panama, or the host of plants and animals whose secrets and potential benefits have yet to be fathomed? In a word, nothing. When they are gone, they are.

The world's rain forests still hold a host of secrets, many of which are being slowly unravelled as new discoveries of plant and animal life are made. According to conservative estimates, about 30 million species of plants and animals - more than half of all life forms on Earth - live in the tropical rain forests. But some scientists suggest there could be up to 80 million or more species living in this mysterious and still largely unexplored realm. This higher figure could very well be proved right as researchers probe the forest canopy, the treetop network of leaves, vines and branches that forms a world within a world. In these huge green expanses scores of meters above the forest floor, sky gardens of orchids and philodendrons bloom without benefit of soil. Birds avoid the rain by hanging upside down beneath broad leaves. Green iguanas climb aloft to bask nearer the tropical sun. Sloths dangle motionless for hours, avoiding eagles and other predators. And everywhere is the buzz and flutter of insects, which inhabit the rain forest in incredible variety and numbers. While new species of larger creatures such as a dwarf deer identified in Vietnam's Vu Quag forest in April are rarely discovered, the insect world still offers plentiful newness, especially in the rain forest canopy.

This treetop world enchants Andrew Mitchell, an Oxford-based naturalist and author who is program director for Earth Watch, an organisation that matches volunteer members of the public with scientific and conservation projects worldwide. Mitchell has extensively explored the rain forests of Asia and Latin America, making perilous climbs into the canopy, which he describes as the "penthouse where the trees have their sex lives". The canopy is physically and biologically the most active part of any rain forest. With its complex system of interdependence among animals, plants and insects, it is also the least understood. "Half of all life lives there and it's where the reproductive biology of trees goes on", explains Mitchell. "If we're trying to save rain forests, we won't get anywhere unless we understand how these trees reproduce". As commercial development encroaches ever deeper into once-remote areas, saving the rain forests is becoming an increasingly urgent task. Some 6% of Earth's land area is rain forest, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, and more than 1% of that - about 17 million hectares - is being lost each year through logging, mining and agriculture.

Choose the word(s) most opposite in meaning to the word ‘Pernicious’ as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. 

Genes too often get a bad press. This is not surprising since there are "bad" genes as well as "good" ones, and bad news grips readers more than good news. Bad genes are actually mutated good genes which because of altered DNA messages, do not function normally. One particularly bad gene leads to Huntington's disease, which progressively destroys key nerve cells. Most of an individual's genes, however, are inherently good. Collectively they are the instruction book for our bodies. Without the right instructions from our genes, we could not develop into functioning adults. And fortunately, many bad genes - like that for cystic fibrosis - have no immediate consequence since they are expressed only when copies are inherited from both the father and mother. Carriers possessing only one copy of this gene are much more common (around one in 25) than individuals with the disease (around one in 2,300). Until recently, there was no way to isolate and characterise bad genes. They were known only by their consequences: disease. Today, however thanks to the development of powerful new ways for studying DNA, there is a flood of information about the faulty genes implicated in virtually every major human disease, including diabetes, cancer and asthma. Every week or so, a new disease gene is discovered.

But with almost routine ways now available to test DNA samples for the presence of specific mutant genes, there is increased anxiety that an individual's genetic heritage may be vulnerable to unwanted prying. The DNA from a single human hair for example may be sufficient to alert a prospective employer or health insurer to a person's genetic predisposition to disease. Broad privacy laws must therefore be enacted to forbid genetic tests without the informed consent of the individual involved. But even with such laws, dilemmas will arise when individuals do not realise the significance of the proposed genetic screening. These tests warn of impending disease, but do not cure. And how many people would want to have certain knowledge that they will contract a disease for which there is no cure?

Banishing genetic disability must therefore be our primary concern. We would not worry about testing for a predisposing gene for Alzheimer's disease if we already had the cure. In this case, knowing that an individual is seriously predisposed might allow drug therapy to begin before brain functioning is irreversibly diminished. The recent discovery of several genes whose malfunctioning leads to Alzheimer's provides the pharmaceutical industry with important molecular targets for drug development. Only through the discovery of these kinds of genes can biomedical research stop this most pernicious cause of human senility.

We must never, however, live under the misconception that we will ever effectively control the majority of genetic diseases. Many are likely to prove intractable to drug therapies or gene therapies in which good genes are introduced into cells to compensate for bad ones. It will be particularly difficult to compensate for genes that malfunction during foetal development. If key genes controlling the networking of brain cells don't come into action in the womb, no drug or gene therapy procedure will be able to correctly rewire the brain later. There is a great difference of opinion as to whether steps should be taken to prevent the birth of genetically impaired children. Many are opposed for religious reasons to trying to control the genetic destinies of children. Others, recalling Germany's eugenic practice whereby the crude racial and class prejudices of early eugenicists are replaced by scientific demonstrations of genetic inequality.

But the possibility of controlling our children's genetic destiny strikes me as only good. It is grossly unfair that some families’ lives are dominated by the horrors of genetic disease. As a biologist, I know that people suffering from genetic disease are the victims of unlucky throws of the genetic dice. Mutation has been, and always will be, an essential fact of life, since it is through mistake in gene replication that the positive genetic variants arise which are the lifeblood of evolution. If the gene copying process were perfect, life as it now exists never would have come about. Genetic disease is the price we pay for the extraordinary evolutionary process that has given rise to the wonders of life on earth.

I thus do not see genetic diseases in any way as an expression of the complex will of any supernatural authority, but rather as random tragedies that we should do everything in our power to prevent. Here is, of course, nothing pleasant about terminating the existence of a genetically disabled foetus. But doing so is comparably more compassionate than allowing an infant to come into the world tragically impaired. There is, of course, the question of who should have the authority to make decisions of this kind. Here the message of past eugenic practices is clear. Never let a government, no matter how apparently benign, into the process. The potential mother should have this authority. It is she who is likely to be most involved with the upbringing of the child.

I am aware that some will argue that the foetus has an inalienable right to life. But the process of evolution never regards any form of life, be it adult or foetal as an inalienable right. It's better to see humans as wonderful social animals having needs (for food, health and sex, for example), capabilities (for thought and love among others) and responsibilities (including that to work with other human beings to see that everyone's needs are adequately met). Working intelligently and wisely to see that good genes - not bad ones - dominate as many lives as possible is the truly moral way for us to proceed.

Choose the word(s) most opposite in meaning to the word ‘Vulnerable’ as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. 

Genes too often get a bad press. This is not surprising since there are "bad" genes as well as "good" ones, and bad news grips readers more than good news. Bad genes are actually mutated good genes which because of altered DNA messages, do not function normally. One particularly bad gene leads to Huntington's disease, which progressively destroys key nerve cells. Most of an individual's genes, however, are inherently good. Collectively they are the instruction book for our bodies. Without the right instructions from our genes, we could not develop into functioning adults. And fortunately, many bad genes - like that for cystic fibrosis - have no immediate consequence since they are expressed only when copies are inherited from both the father and mother. Carriers possessing only one copy of this gene are much more common (around one in 25) than individuals with the disease (around one in 2,300). Until recently, there was no way to isolate and characterise bad genes. They were known only by their consequences: disease. Today, however thanks to the development of powerful new ways for studying DNA, there is a flood of information about the faulty genes implicated in virtually every major human disease, including diabetes, cancer and asthma. Every week or so, a new disease gene is discovered.

But with almost routine ways now available to test DNA samples for the presence of specific mutant genes, there is increased anxiety that an individual's genetic heritage may be vulnerable to unwanted prying. The DNA from a single human hair for example may be sufficient to alert a prospective employer or health insurer to a person's genetic predisposition to disease. Broad privacy laws must therefore be enacted to forbid genetic tests without the informed consent of the individual involved. But even with such laws, dilemmas will arise when individuals do not realise the significance of the proposed genetic screening. These tests warn of impending disease, but do not cure. And how many people would want to have certain knowledge that they will contract a disease for which there is no cure?

Banishing genetic disability must therefore be our primary concern. We would not worry about testing for a predisposing gene for Alzheimer's disease if we already had the cure. In this case, knowing that an individual is seriously predisposed might allow drug therapy to begin before brain functioning is irreversibly diminished. The recent discovery of several genes whose malfunctioning leads to Alzheimer's provides the pharmaceutical industry with important molecular targets for drug development. Only through the discovery of these kinds of genes can biomedical research stop this most pernicious cause of human senility.

We must never, however, live under the misconception that we will ever effectively control the majority of genetic diseases. Many are likely to prove intractable to drug therapies or gene therapies in which good genes are introduced into cells to compensate for bad ones. It will be particularly difficult to compensate for genes that malfunction during foetal development. If key genes controlling the networking of brain cells don't come into action in the womb, no drug or gene therapy procedure will be able to correctly rewire the brain later. There is a great difference of opinion as to whether steps should be taken to prevent the birth of genetically impaired children. Many are opposed for religious reasons to trying to control the genetic destinies of children. Others, recalling Germany's eugenic practice whereby the crude racial and class prejudices of early eugenicists are replaced by scientific demonstrations of genetic inequality.

But the possibility of controlling our children's genetic destiny strikes me as only good. It is grossly unfair that some families’ lives are dominated by the horrors of genetic disease. As a biologist, I know that people suffering from genetic disease are the victims of unlucky throws of the genetic dice. Mutation has been, and always will be, an essential fact of life, since it is through mistake in gene replication that the positive genetic variants arise which are the lifeblood of evolution. If the gene copying process were perfect, life as it now exists never would have come about. Genetic disease is the price we pay for the extraordinary evolutionary process that has given rise to the wonders of life on earth.

I thus do not see genetic diseases in any way as an expression of the complex will of any supernatural authority, but rather as random tragedies that we should do everything in our power to prevent. Here is, of course, nothing pleasant about terminating the existence of a genetically disabled foetus. But doing so is comparably more compassionate than allowing an infant to come into the world tragically impaired. There is, of course, the question of who should have the authority to make decisions of this kind. Here the message of past eugenic practices is clear. Never let a government, no matter how apparently benign, into the process. The potential mother should have this authority. It is she who is likely to be most involved with the upbringing of the child.

I am aware that some will argue that the foetus has an inalienable right to life. But the process of evolution never regards any form of life, be it adult or foetal as an inalienable right. It's better to see humans as wonderful social animals having needs (for food, health and sex, for example), capabilities (for thought and love among others) and responsibilities (including that to work with other human beings to see that everyone's needs are adequately met). Working intelligently and wisely to see that good genes - not bad ones - dominate as many lives as possible is the truly moral way for us to proceed.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word ‘Fathomed’, as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully to answer the given question. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering the question.

There is nothing like a tropical rain forest for replacing arrogance with awe. Who could enter these primordial places, these untamed Edens, and not be wonderstruck? Dark and mysterious even in daytime, rain forests inspire respect. They are one of Nature's last frontiers, alive with flora and fauna seen rarely or never by human beings, and colonized by a handful of indigenous tribes that have had little or no contact with the outside world. Vast, fecund and biologically diverse, rain forests are bountiful and seemingly inexhaustible ecosystems that have supplied the human race with a staggering treasure trove including timber, fruit, spices and medicines. Although much more bounty lies in wait, the pace of discovery in the rain forest is naturally slow. The sheer number of plants to study is staggering and scientific experimentation takes time and money. Even when a chemical needle is found in a rain forest haystack, it still takes years to get a new drug to market.

The English naturalist and author Gerald Durrell assailed those who would ravage the rain forests loggers, ranchers and miners, for acting "with the savage, unthinking ferocity of a troupe of drunken apes in art gallery". But, he added, "whereas pictures can be repainted, tropical rain forests can't be recreated". Indeed, what could replace the wondrous electric fish of the Amazon River, the poison-sweating frogs of Panama, or the host of plants and animals whose secrets and potential benefits have yet to be fathomed? In a word, nothing. When they are gone, they are.

The world's rain forests still hold a host of secrets, many of which are being slowly unravelled as new discoveries of plant and animal life are made. According to conservative estimates, about 30 million species of plants and animals - more than half of all life forms on Earth - live in the tropical rain forests. But some scientists suggest there could be up to 80 million or more species living in this mysterious and still largely unexplored realm. This higher figure could very well be proved right as researchers probe the forest canopy, the treetop network of leaves, vines and branches that forms a world within a world. In these huge green expanses scores of meters above the forest floor, sky gardens of orchids and philodendrons bloom without benefit of soil. Birds avoid the rain by hanging upside down beneath broad leaves. Green iguanas climb aloft to bask nearer the tropical sun. Sloths dangle motionless for hours, avoiding eagles and other predators. And everywhere is the buzz and flutter of insects, which inhabit the rain forest in incredible variety and numbers. While new species of larger creatures such as a dwarf deer identified in Vietnam's Vu Quag forest in April are rarely discovered, the insect world still offers plentiful newness, especially in the rain forest canopy.

This treetop world enchants Andrew Mitchell, an Oxford-based naturalist and author who is program director for Earth Watch, an organisation that matches volunteer members of the public with scientific and conservation projects worldwide. Mitchell has extensively explored the rain forests of Asia and Latin America, making perilous climbs into the canopy, which he describes as the "penthouse where the trees have their sex lives". The canopy is physically and biologically the most active part of any rain forest. With its complex system of interdependence among animals, plants and insects, it is also the least understood. "Half of all life lives there and it's where the reproductive biology of trees goes on", explains Mitchell. "If we're trying to save rain forests, we won't get anywhere unless we understand how these trees reproduce". As commercial development encroaches ever deeper into once-remote areas, saving the rain forests is becoming an increasingly urgent task. Some 6% of Earth's land area is rain forest, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, and more than 1% of that - about 17 million hectares - is being lost each year through logging, mining and agriculture.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word ‘fragile’, as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the question that follows. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering the question.

Today, the import duty on a complete machine is 30% for all practical purposes, whereas the import duty on raw materials and components ranges from 35.85%. The story does not end here. After paying such high import duties on components, once a machine is made, it suffers excise duty from 5% – 10% (including on the customs duty already paid). At the time of sale, the machine tools suffer further taxation, i.e. Central Sales Tax or State Sales Tax which range from 4% – 16%. This much for the tax angle. Another factor, which pushes the cost of manufacture of machine tools, is the very high rate of interest payable to banks ranging up to 22%, as against 4% – 7% prevailing in advanced countries.
The production of machine tools in India being not of the same scale as it is in other countries, the price which India's machine tool builders have to pay for components is more or less based on the pattern of high pricing applicable to the prices of spares.
The machines tool industry in India has an enviable record of very quick technology absorption, assimilation and development. There are a number of success stories about how machine tool builders were of help at the most critical times. It will be a pity, in fact a tragedy, if we allow this industry to die and disappear from the scene.
It is to be noted that India is at least 6500 km away from any dependable source of supply of machine tools. The Government of India has always given a great deal of importance to the development of small scale and medium scale industries. This industry has also performed pretty well. Today, they are in need of help from India's machine tool industry to enable them to produce quality components at reduced costs. Is it anybody's case that the needs of the fragile sector (which needs tender care) will be met from 6500 km away?
Then, what is it that the industry requests from the government? It wants a level playing field. In fact, all of us must have a deep introspection and recognise the fact that the machine tool industry has a very special place in the country from the point of strategic and vital interest of the nation. Most importantly, it requests for the Government's consideration and understanding. It is therefore, high time that the government gives due attention to this industry which has good potential.

Choose the word most opposite in meaning to the word ‘absorption’, as used in the passage.

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and answer the question that follows. Some words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering the question.

Today, the import duty on a complete machine is 30% for all practical purposes, whereas the import duty on raw materials and components ranges from 35.85%. The story does not end here. After paying such high import duties on components, once a machine is made, it suffers excise duty from 5% – 10% (including on the customs duty already paid). At the time of sale, the machine tools suffer further taxation, i.e. Central Sales Tax or State Sales Tax which range from 4% – 16%. This much for the tax angle. Another factor, which pushes the cost of manufacture of machine tools, is the very high rate of interest payable to banks ranging up to 22%, as against 4% – 7% prevailing in advanced countries.
The production of machine tools in India being not of the same scale as it is in other countries, the price which India's machine tool builders have to pay for components is more or less based on the pattern of high pricing applicable to the prices of spares.
The machines tool industry in India has an enviable record of very quick technology absorption, assimilation and development. There are a number of success stories about how machine tool builders were of help at the most critical times. It will be a pity, in fact a tragedy, if we allow this industry to die and disappear from the scene.
It is to be noted that India is at least 6500 km away from any dependable source of supply of machine tools. The Government of India has always given a great deal of importance to the development of small scale and medium scale industries. This industry has also performed pretty well. Today, they are in need of help from India's machine tool industry to enable them to produce quality components at reduced costs. Is it anybody's case that the needs of the fragile sector (which needs tender care) will be met from 6500 km away?
Then, what is it that the industry requests from the government? It wants a level playing field. In fact, all of us must have a deep introspection and recognise the fact that the machine tool industry has a very special place in the country from the point of strategic and vital interest of the nation. Most importantly, it requests for the Government's consideration and understanding. It is therefore, high time that the government gives due attention to this industry which has good potential.