11 Plus Exams Forum

Hello All,

Just a small query...Got a new Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Book 2. In the Mixed Test 12 there is a question on Synonyms.

'Synonyms: Similar Words- Choose one word from each set that are most similar in meaning '

3- Set 1 has words Dusk, Sunrise, Moonshine ' and set 2 has words 'cloudy , birds, dawn' .

The answers say they are synonyms but my DD says they are antonyms.

Can anyone please explain how Dawn and Dusk are Synonyms ?

Thanks in advance

Sunrise and Dawn, surely....

Thanks Northdad,

I too think it should be Sunrise and Dawn but answer was different so was confused .

No problem. Amazes me the number of mistakes one finds in both commercial and school papers. You would think that testing a paper with a student or even a fellow teacher wouldnt be that hard to do.

So True...sometimes it just confuses us . My DD always finds some or the other grammatical mistakes and argues and gets frustrated. Just have to give her 1 extra mark for her effort to keep her motivated!

'Dawn' and 'sunrise' are not really synonymous, though. I would be tempted to say 'dawn' and 'dusk', because they describe similar natural conditions of light, but again, they are not really synonyms. You wouldn't substitute 'dawn' for 'dusk' in a sentence describing a scene set in the evening, for example.

I think I would have chosen different words for one of the groups, personally.

The key test should be interchangeability. I think dawn and sunrise are the most interchangeable of this group. Interchanging dawn and dusk would be misleading as they are opposite ends of the day. But fully agree, not a great question.