In stark contrast to where I grew up-in warm, lush green Trivandrum, Kerala, filled with rich sights, sounds and people-life at the Poles is quiet. The harshness of winter brings along with it an eerie desolation and near-total silence. Survival in this frigid, dark and windy terrain is only for the fittest. A misstep can mean anything from an icy injury to a bitter, benumbed death.
But while it is tenuous, life here is also humbling-physically, mentally, and even spiritually. The experience has allowed me to witness the wonderous dualities of nature: raw, brutal and unforgiving but nurturing and awe-inspiring at the same time.
As the days shorten, almost all life starts to depart seeking warmer lands. But those who stay are surrounded by glacial beauty and an otherworldly stillness that stands unmatched. In peak winter months, the sun seems to live only in memory. Its absence however, is only an illusion: shimmering displays of blue, red, yellow, green, and orange auroras shifting and snaking like billowing curtains across the pitch black sky remind me that the light shall one day return.
Even the emptiness of the land is deceptive. Look closely and out waddles a flock of penguins from behind an ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula.
Identify the correct synonyms of the two words given below:
Waddle; eerie
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Walk with short steps; causing a feeling of mystery
- Waddle means to walk with short steps, swaying from side to side, the way a duck or a penguin walks. In the passage a flock of penguins "waddles" out from behind an ice shelf.
Example: The ducks waddled down to the pond one behind the other. - Eerie means strange and mysterious in a frightening way, causing a feeling of mystery and unease. The winter brings "an eerie desolation", a strange, ghostly emptiness.
Example: An eerie silence fell over the empty house at midnight.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Walk with effort; dark — Incorrect. Waddling is a swaying walk, not one done with effort, and dark means without light, which is not the meaning of eerie.
Option 3: hobble around; Scary — Incorrect. To hobble means to walk with difficulty because of pain or an injured leg. A waddle is a natural swaying gait, not a limp. Scary is close to eerie, but the pair fails because of the first word.
Example: After the fall he hobbled to the car on one foot.
Option 4: Trudge; ludicrous — Incorrect. To trudge is to walk slowly and heavily, as when tired. Ludicrous means so foolish that it is laughable. Neither matches.
Example: The idea of selling ice to the penguins is ludicrous.
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