IBPS RRB Assistant 9 Sep 2012

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases have been printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Once upon a time there lived a stone cutter in a small village. He worked hard throughout the day, preparing the shapes that were ordered by his customers. His hands were rough and his clothes were dirty. One day he went to the mountain to cut a big stone. It was difficult to work as the weather was extremely hot. After working for several hours, he sat down in the shade of a nearby tree and soon fell asleep. After sometime, he heard the sound of a procession. He woke up and saw many soldiers and attendants walking in the sun, alongside the king who not only rode an elephant but also had an umbrella to keep the sun away. “How wonderful it must be to be a king”, thought the stone cutter. He wondered how happy would he be if he were the king instead of a poor stone cutter. As he thought so, a strange thing happened. The stone cutter found himself dressed in silk clothes and shining jewels. His hands were soft and he was sitting on the elephant. He looked around at the attendants and thought, “how easy it is to be a king, these people are here to serve me.” The procession moved on and the sun grew hotter. The stone cutter, now the king, became too warm for comfort. He Jsked the procession to stop so that could rest for some time. At once ce chief of the soldiers bent before king and said, “Your Majesty, this morning you swore to have me hanged to death if we did not reach the palace before the sun set.” The stone cutter felt sorry for him and let the procession go on its way again. “I am powerful, it is true, but how more powerful the sun is. I would rather be the sun than a king”, he thought. At once, he became the sun, shining down on the earth. Its new power was hard to control. It shone too brilliantly and burned up the fields with its rays. But no matter how hard it shone, it could not see through the clouds. It was evident that the clouds were even stronger and more powerful than the sun. The sun wished that it would rather he a cloud. Suddenly it found itself turned into a huge dark cloud. It started using its new power. It poured rain down on the fields and caused floods. All the trees and houses were swept away but the boulder, which once it had been cutting when it was a stone cutter was unmoved and unchanged. No matter how hard it poured down on the stone, the stone did not move. The cloud wondered, “That rock is more powerful than I am. Only a stone cutter could change the rock by his skill.” No sooner had it said these words, he found himself sitting on a stone. He picked up his tools and began working.

Choose the word which is MOST OPPOSITE in MEANING to the word printed in bold as used in the passage.