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GATE 2023 EE GA Q.2: solution and answer

GATE 2023 · EEGA Q.2 · 1 mark · MCQ

Permit : ______ : : Enforce : Relax

(By word meaning)

  1. (A)

    Allow

  2. (B)

    Forbid

  3. (C)

    License

  4. (D)

    Reinforce

See the question in the paper
GATE 2023 EE GA question 2Tap to open full size

Answer and solution

ANSWER

(B) Forbid. Enforce and Relax are antonyms, and Forbid is the antonym of Permit.

Official answer: BSource: Official answer key, GATE 2023 EE (IIT Kanpur)

  1. Start with the complete pair. To enforce a rule is to make people obey it strictly. To relax a rule is to loosen it or stop applying it strictly. So Enforce : Relax is a pair of antonyms (opposites).

  2. In an analogy, the first pair must have the same relation as the second pair. So the blank must hold an antonym of Permit.

  3. Permit means to allow something or to give permission for it. Its opposite is to refuse permission, that is, to prohibit.

  4. Rule out the other options. (A) Allow and (C) License (as a verb, to authorise formally) both mean roughly the same as permit, so Permit : Allow and Permit : License are synonym pairs, not antonym pairs. (D) Reinforce means to strengthen. It is close in meaning to enforce, from the other pair, and is not an opposite of permit.

  5. (B) Forbid means to refuse permission, which is the exact opposite of permit. So Permit : Forbid has the same antonym relation as Enforce : Relax. The answer is (B).

KEY IDEA

Work out the relation in the complete pair first (here, Enforce : Relax are antonyms). The blank must then stand in the same relation to Permit, so you need Permit's antonym.

WATCH OUT FOR

Picking a synonym of Permit (Allow or License) without checking the relation in the complete pair. Another trap is choosing Reinforce because it sounds like Enforce. Sound-alike words are a common distractor in GATE analogy questions.

From the GATE 2023 EE paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 41 Reasoning questions, with notes

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