Choose the sentences that are examples of oxymoron:
(A) Nani’s new recipe for bitter-gourd chips turned out awfully good.
(B) Dadaji says he became truly rich only after he learnt to want less.
(C) The new comedy show on the hostel TV is seriously funny.
(D) Mohan writes so small that one page of his notes takes a whole week to read.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (A) and (C) only
An oxymoron puts two opposite words side by side.
(A) Nani’s new recipe for bitter-gourd chips turned out awfully good. — Correct.
- “Awfully” comes from “awful”, which means very bad. Here it sits right next to “good”.
(B) Dadaji says he became truly rich only after he learnt to want less. — Incorrect.
- This sentence uses a paradox, a statement that seems to go against itself but still holds a truth.
- Wanting less seems to go with being poor, yet it made Dadaji feel “truly rich”.
(C) The new comedy show on the hostel TV is seriously funny. — Correct.
- “Serious” is the opposite of “funny”, and here the two words sit side by side.
(D) Mohan writes so small that one page of his notes takes a whole week to read. — Incorrect.
- This sentence uses hyperbole, a big exaggeration made for effect.
- No one needs “a whole week” to read one page.