Tricky Vocabulary Questions: Part #2

Q: Samantha and Jason are professional golfers.

A: Neither _______________________________.

While attempting some PSLE English Singapore practice papers, you may come across a question like this during the Transformation/Synthesis section.

With the word “neither” provided, you are expected to tell the examiner what Samantha and Jason are not. This is when antonyms come into play.

📖 Antonyms are “a word that means the opposite of another word”. (Fun fact: the antonym of ‘antonyms’ are ‘synonyms’! 😆)

Knowing this, the answer seems pretty straightforward now, right?

🚨 Don’t let your guard down! 🚨

Sometimes, a word can have different antonyms.

💭 In this question, many students wrote “unprofessional” in their answers. However, “unprofessional” is used when someone is not behaving in a way they should in their profession (e.g. The unprofessional waiter placed his fingers into the customer’s food 😖) and this is not the focus of the question.

🔍 In this case, the focus of the question is that Samantha and Jason are PAID to be golfers – this is their job. Hence, if we want to find the antonym for “professional”, we should use “amateur”, which means that they do not have a job in that field.

(e.g. She is an amateur baker. She loves baking in her free time.)

As such, the correct answer would be: Neither Samantha nor Jason are amateur golfers.

💡 At our English tuition centre, T.A.S. students are highly encouraged to build up their vocabulary bank through the use of flashcards. An English student with good vocabulary is a well-equipped student who can easily tackle PSLE English!