In the following question, out of the four alternatives, select the word which is opposite in meaning to the given word and mark your answer carefully. To avert.

Introduction / Context:
This antonym question focuses on verbs commonly used in formal writing and news reports. The verb to avert is often used with accidents, crises, and disasters, and it means to prevent something bad from happening. The candidate must identify the verb that moves in the opposite direction of preventing harm and instead suggests helping or supporting an event or outcome.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Key verb: to avert.
• Options: To aid, To deter, To forestall, To preclude.
• We consider standard meanings in modern English usage.
• The focus is on semantic opposition, not on grammatical form.

Concept / Approach:
To avert means to ward off, to prevent, or to avoid something, especially something harmful or unpleasant. For example, one may avert a crisis or avert danger. Among the options, deter, forestall, and preclude all carry the idea of preventing or stopping something. That makes them near synonyms of avert rather than opposites. Only aid suggests giving help or support, which can allow an event to occur rather than prevent it. Therefore the correct strategy is to group the prevention verbs together and pick the word that expresses assistance instead.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that to avert means to prevent something bad from taking place.Step 2: Examine To deter. This means to discourage or prevent someone from taking an action, which is similar to avert.Step 3: Examine To forestall. This means to prevent or obstruct something by taking action ahead of time, again matching avert.Step 4: Examine To preclude. This means to make something impossible, especially by taking advance action, and so is close to avert.Step 5: Examine To aid. This means to help, assist, or support. Instead of preventing an event, aid can make it more likely to occur, which is the opposite of averting it.

Verification / Alternative check:
Consider an example sentence: The timely intervention of the police averted a riot. If we replace averted with deterred, forestalled, or precluded, the meaning remains similar because the riot is prevented. However, if we say the intervention aided a riot, the meaning completely reverses and implies the riot was helped or made easier. This demonstrates that aid is the clear antonym, since averting an event and aiding an event pull in opposite directions.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
To deter: This verb means to discourage or prevent a person from taking some action, reinforcing the idea of prevention, not opposing it. To forestall: This describes stopping something from happening by acting in advance, again parallel to avert. To preclude: This means to rule out or make something impossible, which is almost a dictionary level synonym of avert in many contexts. None of these offer help or support and therefore cannot be antonyms.

Common Pitfalls:
Because three options are close synonyms, some students may hesitate and try to choose the strongest one among them, forgetting that the question asks for an opposite, not a synonym. Another mistake is not fully internalising the meaning of aid and seeing it only as a general positive word instead of a verb that actively helps an outcome. Reading the keyword in a simple sentence such as avert danger versus aid danger can make the contrast clearer and guide correct choice.

Final Answer:
The word that is most opposite in meaning to to avert is To aid.