Choose the word that means the opposite of the highlighted word in the…

Antonym questions test whether you know a word's core sense precisely enough to state its exact opposite — not just any word that looks or sounds related. Many English words cluster in families sharing a root (here, “-ceed” and “-cede”), so distractors are often built from that root while expressing a different relationship (such as sequence/order) instead of the one actually being tested (direction of movement).

The highlighted word “proceed” means to move forward or carry on in a course of action. Reversing this specific sense of forward movement gives “to move backward, withdraw, or go away” — exactly what “receding” expresses.

• proceeding — carries the same forward-moving sense as the highlighted word, so it is a near-synonym, not an opposite.

• succeeding — means coming after in sequence or achieving a goal; this concerns order, not direction of movement.

• preceding — means coming before in sequence; again an order relationship, not the movement-direction opposite required here.

Because “receding” is the only option that reverses the specific sense of forward movement carried by “proceed,” it is the correct antonym.