From the words lettered A. to D below each of the following sentences, choose the word or group of words that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the underlined word and that would appropriately fill the gap in the following sentence:

In this country, the law against armed robbery is stringent whereas that against  smoking in public places is.........

The purpose of education is not to..... but to facilitate progress

These days, many people concentrate on temporal things to the detriment of the _______

While your parents are ........ ., mine are liberal in their views.

FIll in the gap with the appropriate option in the sentence below:

The judge expected direct answers but the accused was ....