how to automate creation of vocabulary questions

Question

We would like to prepare a quiz which will improve the vocabulary of the students.

What does pittance mean?

a) tiny, inadequate amount of payment b) to feel pity or remorse c) to go against, rebuttal an argument d) regret, wishing you could take back what has been done or said

The answer to the above question is (a). So in order to create this question, the person creating the quiz provides a word and the right meaning and he has to look for 3 other choices. This is a time consuming process and we would like to automate this if possible. What logic should we use to create the other choices (it would be preferable to have the rest of the choices as close as possible to the original meaning, but aren't correct so that the time taken by the student to find the answer is tough).

Answer 1

That looks like a tough nut to crack. I would rather take the closest synonyms of "Pittance" and use their meanings as 2 of the choices. You could do this by indexing a dictionary. AS to the fourth choice, generate a string with the substring word of the question. Like Pit for pittance. Hope that helps.