Another kind of language question you might see is one asking you to draw an analogy, and this kind of question is different from the other kinds we've already discussed. Instead, you'll see something like this:1. Mare : Foal a. Dog : Cat b. Dolphin : Tuna c. Shark : Whale d. Hen : Chick You're looking for two words that have the same relationship as the two words in the question stem.
Here's what a full analogy looks like: Food: Plate :: Beverage : Glass Here is what the analogy means: Food is to plate as beverage is to glass. In other words, a beverage has the same relationship to a glass as food has to a plate. In both cases, the second item is used to serve the first item. In the example above, select the answer that contains two words with the same kind of relationship as mare and foal. While all the pairs in the answers have some similarities, only d contains the same relationship of an adult female and a young animal of the same species. Don't let analogy questions intimidate you. Just think of them exactly as they are—another kind of vocabulary question. In fact, some will be nothing more than synonym/antonym questions. If you've never answered analogy questions before, they might seem tricky, but once you've gone through a few of our practice questions, you'll see they're really nothing to worry about. Sometimes the analogy questions have a slightly different format. For example, you might see a question phrased like this: Mare : Foal :: Hen :
a. rooster b. duck c. chick d. goose
As you can see, completing these kinds of analogies isn't much different than the first format; in fact, this layout may be a bit easier since you're given more information to start with. One thing to keep in mind is that the order of the words is extremely important. The two words in the correct answer must not only have the same relationship as the two words in the question stem, they must also be in the same order. Mare : Foal :: Hen : Chick is correct because a mare is an adult female horse and a foal is a young horse, while a hen is an adult female chicken and a chick is a young chicken. However, Chick : Hen would not be a correct answer, because even though both elements of the analogy are present, they are in reverse order, changing the relationship. Analogies can represent many different kinds of relationships. Here are some of the most common: Synonyms—question : query Antonyms—straight : meandering Whole/Part—finger : hand | foot : toe Classification/Kind/Category/Composition, etc.—owl : nocturnal | owl : bird | building : brick | red : color | apparel : shirt Single/Group—cow : herd | tree : forest Degree—big : huge | angry : furious | tired : exhausted | hot : warm Subject/Action—doctor : prescribe | attorney : defend Action/Subject—hit : ball | levy : tax Object/User—wrench : mechanic | conductor : baton Object/Place—flower : garden | office : desk Object/Action—pen : write | cut : knife Cause/Effect—virus : illness | practice : improvement | stress : anxiety Aspect—cheetah : fast | mansion : huge These are some of the most common kinds of analogies found on civil service exams. There are others, but there's no need to cover every conceivable kind of analogy you might run into. Ninety percent of the analogies you'll see will fall into one of the above categories, and you should have no trouble spotting the relationship in any that don't.
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