UPSC EPFO EO/AO 2021 · Question 8
Question 8 of the UPSC EPFO EO/AO Recruitment Test 2021 (General Ability Test, Advt. 51/2020) (5 September 2021). Try it first, then open the answer and explanation.
Choose the word opposite in meaning to the underlined word "fertile". These regions are very "fertile".
- sterile
- arid
- barren
- productive
Show answer
Answer: (3) barren
"Fertile" land or regions produce abundant vegetation and crops. The standard antonym for land is "barren", too poor to produce much or any vegetation, as in "barren land". "Sterile" is also an opposite of fertile and can describe poor soil, but it is used mainly of people and animals unable to have young, or in the sense free from germs; "barren" is the usual word for land and regions. "Arid" means very dry, a matter of rainfall rather than of the soil's capacity to produce, and "productive" is a synonym of fertile.