Question

Find the synonym of the underlined word.
A number of animals in Aesop’s fables are portrayed as being crafty.
A. Dexterous
B. Talented
C. Artistic
D. Cunning
E. Ferocious

Answer 1

Hint: Crafty is a word that means to be artful or ingenious. If someone is crafty, they usually resort to indirect and deceitful methods to achieve their goals.

Complete step-by-step answer:

Synonyms are words that have the same meaning as a given word. Generally, words in the English language have many synonyms bearing similar meanings. A thesaurus is a book that contains all these synonyms in one place.
Let us look at some examples of synonyms. Unpleasant is an adjective that denotes something repulsive or disgusting. Odious is another adjective that can be used to describe this same meaning in one word.
Similarly, let us look at the adjective plenty. When something exists in large amounts, it is said to be plenty. Copious is another adjective that can be used to describe this meaning in one word.
In our question, we have been given the word crafty. Let us consider what its meaning is. Crafty is used to refer to someone who is sly, clever, and uses deceit to fulfill their goals. In some literary pieces, animals are frequently personified as being crafty. Fox and wolves often best exemplify this craftiness. Crafty is best qualified by the word cunning. Therefore, option D is the correct answer.

Note: Let us consider the problematic areas of this question. It is likely that you may think that dexterous is the synonym of crafty as it is a novel word and choose dexterous as the answer. But, dexterous means to handle things skilfully. This would make it the wrong answer.