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GATE 2017 EC – Question 6

General Aptitude · Verbal Aptitude: Grammar and Vocabulary · 2 marks · Multiple choice

"If you are looking for a history of India, or for an account of the rise and fall of the British Raj, or for the reason of the cleaving of the subcontinent into two mutually antagonistic parts and the effects this mutilation will have in the respective sections, and ultimately on Asia, you will not find it in these pages: for though I have spent a lifetime in the country, I lived too near the seat of events, and was too intimately associated with the actors, to get the perspective needed for the impartial recording of these matters."

Here, the word 'antagonistic' is closest in meaning to

  1. impartial
  2. argumentative
  3. separated
  4. hostile

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Correct answer: (D) hostile

Explanation

"Antagonistic" means opposed or in conflict, which is closest to "hostile". "Impartial" is the opposite of taking sides, and "separated" only describes the split, not the feeling between the parts.