SSC CGL – ssc cgl 20th sep-2025

Select the most appropriate synonym of the given word:

OBFUSCATION

Explanation: Obfuscation means making something unclear, confusing, or difficult to understand. Therefore, “Confusion” best expresses the meaning of the given word. “Clarity” and “Transparency” convey the opposite idea, while “Explanation” does not match the meaning of obfuscation.

Select the most appropriate antonym of the given word.

Vociferous

Explanation: “Vociferous” means loud, noisy, or expressing opinions in a forceful and noisy manner. Its opposite is “Silent,” which means quiet or not making sound. “Noisy,” “Loud,” and “Boisterous” are close to the meaning of vociferous, not its antonym.

Choose the correct meaning of idiom:

Flash in the pan

Explanation: “Flash in the pan” refers to something that appears successful or impressive for a short time but does not continue or last. Therefore, “A sudden success that fails to last” is the correct meaning of the idiom.

Choose the correct meaning of idiom:

To bite one’s thumb at someone

Explanation: “To bite one’s thumb at someone” is an idiom used to show contempt, insult, or disrespect toward someone. Therefore, “To insult someone contemptuously” is the correct meaning of the idiom.

Which spelling is correct for a word meaning

‘calm and peaceful’?

Explanation: The correct spelling of the word meaning calm, peaceful, and untroubled is “Serene.” The other spellings are incorrect forms and do not represent the standard spelling of the word.

Which spelling is correct for a word meaning

‘basic or fundamental’.

Explanation: “Rudimentary” is the correct spelling of the word meaning basic, elementary, or fundamental. The other options are misspelt versions and are not accepted standard spellings.

Choose the correct one-word substitute for:

'Cancellation of a penalty or debt.'

Explanation: “Remission” means the cancellation, reduction, or forgiveness of a debt, penalty, or punishment. “Acquittal” means freeing someone from a criminal charge, “Reprieve” means temporary relief from punishment, and “Pardon” means forgiveness for an offence.

Choose the correct one-word substitute for:

'The use of trickery to achieve a political or financial goal'.

Explanation: “Chicanery” means the use of deception, trickery, or dishonest methods to achieve a political, legal, or financial purpose. Therefore, it is the correct one-word substitute for the given expression.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: <br> Postcolonial infrastructures often inhabit a schizochronic condition—a simultaneity of obsolescence and futurity. Flyovers half-finished, railway stations calcified mid-renovation, and electric grids oscillating between blackout and surplus do not signify simple malfunction. Rather, they manifest a (1) _____ temporality in which the present is neither a continuity of the past nor a stable projection of the future. These infrastructures function not as inert utilities but as affective indexes of temporal rupture. Modernity, once telegraphed through asphalt and concrete, now flickers within these arrested developments—gestures of progress suspended in bureaucratic amber. Here, functionality is beside the point. What matters is the performative (2) _____ of development: roads that signify mobility even when impassable, metros that symbolize futurity even when immobile. In this schema, infrastructure ceases to be an engineering problem and becomes a narrative technology—a spatial discourse that (3) _____ the nation-state's promises into sedimented form. Bridges-to-be and always-rebuilding airports constitute not failure, but continuity: the continual renewal of unfinished intention. Such spatial artifacts require a recalibrated hermeneutics. To read them literally is to miss their symbolic resonance. Their disrepair is not decay but (4) _____: a visual vocabulary of state temporality, in which incompletion is the political idiom of continuity. This is the temporal grammar of anticipation without arrival. Thus, the postcolonial built environment articulates not stasis, but (5) _____—a condition where motion exists without direction, and progress is simulated through perpetual incompletion.

What should come in the place of blank number (1)?

Explanation: The passage describes a broken or disconnected sense of time in which the present is neither a continuation of the past nor a stable projection of the future. “Disjunctive” means disconnected or lacking continuity, so it fits the idea of temporal rupture.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: <br> Postcolonial infrastructures often inhabit a schizochronic condition—a simultaneity of obsolescence and futurity. Flyovers half-finished, railway stations calcified mid-renovation, and electric grids oscillating between blackout and surplus do not signify simple malfunction. Rather, they manifest a (1) _____ temporality in which the present is neither a continuity of the past nor a stable projection of the future. These infrastructures function not as inert utilities but as affective indexes of temporal rupture. Modernity, once telegraphed through asphalt and concrete, now flickers within these arrested developments—gestures of progress suspended in bureaucratic amber. Here, functionality is beside the point. What matters is the performative (2) _____ of development: roads that signify mobility even when impassable, metros that symbolize futurity even when immobile. In this schema, infrastructure ceases to be an engineering problem and becomes a narrative technology—a spatial discourse that (3) _____ the nation-state's promises into sedimented form. Bridges-to-be and always-rebuilding airports constitute not failure, but continuity: the continual renewal of unfinished intention. Such spatial artifacts require a recalibrated hermeneutics. To read them literally is to miss their symbolic resonance. Their disrepair is not decay but (4) _____: a visual vocabulary of state temporality, in which incompletion is the political idiom of continuity. This is the temporal grammar of anticipation without arrival. Thus, the postcolonial built environment articulates not stasis, but (5) _____—a condition where motion exists without direction, and progress is simulated through perpetual incompletion.

What should come in the place of blank number (2)?

Explanation: The sentence discusses roads and metros as signs that represent mobility and futurity even when they do not function properly. “Semiotics” relates to signs and symbols, making it the most suitable word for the performative meaning of development.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: <br> Postcolonial infrastructures often inhabit a schizochronic condition—a simultaneity of obsolescence and futurity. Flyovers half-finished, railway stations calcified mid-renovation, and electric grids oscillating between blackout and surplus do not signify simple malfunction. Rather, they manifest a (1) _____ temporality in which the present is neither a continuity of the past nor a stable projection of the future. These infrastructures function not as inert utilities but as affective indexes of temporal rupture. Modernity, once telegraphed through asphalt and concrete, now flickers within these arrested developments—gestures of progress suspended in bureaucratic amber. Here, functionality is beside the point. What matters is the performative (2) _____ of development: roads that signify mobility even when impassable, metros that symbolize futurity even when immobile. In this schema, infrastructure ceases to be an engineering problem and becomes a narrative technology—a spatial discourse that (3) _____ the nation-state's promises into sedimented form. Bridges-to-be and always-rebuilding airports constitute not failure, but continuity: the continual renewal of unfinished intention. Such spatial artifacts require a recalibrated hermeneutics. To read them literally is to miss their symbolic resonance. Their disrepair is not decay but (4) _____: a visual vocabulary of state temporality, in which incompletion is the political idiom of continuity. This is the temporal grammar of anticipation without arrival. Thus, the postcolonial built environment articulates not stasis, but (5) _____—a condition where motion exists without direction, and progress is simulated through perpetual incompletion.

What should come in the place of blank number (3)?

Explanation: The sentence says that infrastructure becomes a spatial discourse that turns the nation-state’s promises into sedimented form. “Materializes” means gives concrete or physical form to something, so it fits the context correctly.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: <br> Postcolonial infrastructures often inhabit a schizochronic condition—a simultaneity of obsolescence and futurity. Flyovers half-finished, railway stations calcified mid-renovation, and electric grids oscillating between blackout and surplus do not signify simple malfunction. Rather, they manifest a (1) _____ temporality in which the present is neither a continuity of the past nor a stable projection of the future. These infrastructures function not as inert utilities but as affective indexes of temporal rupture. Modernity, once telegraphed through asphalt and concrete, now flickers within these arrested developments—gestures of progress suspended in bureaucratic amber. Here, functionality is beside the point. What matters is the performative (2) _____ of development: roads that signify mobility even when impassable, metros that symbolize futurity even when immobile. In this schema, infrastructure ceases to be an engineering problem and becomes a narrative technology—a spatial discourse that (3) _____ the nation-state's promises into sedimented form. Bridges-to-be and always-rebuilding airports constitute not failure, but continuity: the continual renewal of unfinished intention. Such spatial artifacts require a recalibrated hermeneutics. To read them literally is to miss their symbolic resonance. Their disrepair is not decay but (4) _____: a visual vocabulary of state temporality, in which incompletion is the political idiom of continuity. This is the temporal grammar of anticipation without arrival. Thus, the postcolonial built environment articulates not stasis, but (5) _____—a condition where motion exists without direction, and progress is simulated through perpetual incompletion.

What should come in the place of blank number (4)?

Explanation: The passage says that disrepair is not decay but a visual vocabulary of state temporality. This means the disrepair is being treated as a symbolic “expression” of continuity and incompletion, so “expression” is the correct choice.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: <br> Postcolonial infrastructures often inhabit a schizochronic condition—a simultaneity of obsolescence and futurity. Flyovers half-finished, railway stations calcified mid-renovation, and electric grids oscillating between blackout and surplus do not signify simple malfunction. Rather, they manifest a (1) _____ temporality in which the present is neither a continuity of the past nor a stable projection of the future. These infrastructures function not as inert utilities but as affective indexes of temporal rupture. Modernity, once telegraphed through asphalt and concrete, now flickers within these arrested developments—gestures of progress suspended in bureaucratic amber. Here, functionality is beside the point. What matters is the performative (2) _____ of development: roads that signify mobility even when impassable, metros that symbolize futurity even when immobile. In this schema, infrastructure ceases to be an engineering problem and becomes a narrative technology—a spatial discourse that (3) _____ the nation-state's promises into sedimented form. Bridges-to-be and always-rebuilding airports constitute not failure, but continuity: the continual renewal of unfinished intention. Such spatial artifacts require a recalibrated hermeneutics. To read them literally is to miss their symbolic resonance. Their disrepair is not decay but (4) _____: a visual vocabulary of state temporality, in which incompletion is the political idiom of continuity. This is the temporal grammar of anticipation without arrival. Thus, the postcolonial built environment articulates not stasis, but (5) _____—a condition where motion exists without direction, and progress is simulated through perpetual incompletion.

What should come in the place of blank number (5)?

Explanation: The sentence defines the condition as one where motion exists without direction. “Kinesis” means movement or motion, which directly matches the idea expressed in the sentence.

Choose the correct phrasal verb:

The professor asked the student to _____ on her thesis argument.

Explanation: “Expand on” means to explain something in more detail or develop an idea further. Since the sentence refers to a thesis argument, the professor would ask the student to “expand on” it, meaning to elaborate on it.

Select the correct option:

Far from being a liability, his dissenting views often served as a ___ to complacency within the group.

Explanation: “Counterweight” means something that balances or opposes another force or tendency. In the sentence, dissenting views balance or oppose complacency within the group, so “counterweight” is the most suitable word.

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:

The report was more preferable (1)/ to the previous version (2)/ due to its structured layout (3)/ and clarity of language. (4)/

Explanation: The error is in part (1) because “preferable” already has a comparative meaning, so using “more preferable” is grammatically incorrect. The correct expression should be “The report was preferable to the previous version.”

Change the following from active to passive:

They had been making the staff report discrepancies silently.

Explanation: In the passive form of a causative structure with “make,” the verb changes to “made to.” The tense “had been making” is correctly reflected as “had been made to,” so the correct passive sentence is “The staff had been made to report discrepancies silently.”

Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word:

The altar cloth bore a crimson galloon border.

Explanation: The highlighted word “galloon” is used in the sense of an ornamental braid or border. The selected sentence uses the same word form in a different context, making it the option intended as the homonym-based answer.

Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure:

The funds were believed to have been misallocated by certain board members over several quarters.

Explanation: The correct conversion keeps the meaning that certain board members are considered responsible for the completed action of misallocating the funds. “Are believed to have misallocated” correctly expresses this idea while shifting the focus to the board members.

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence:

My friend lives in a village since 2015.

Explanation: Since the action began in 2015 and continues into the present, the present perfect continuous tense is required. Therefore, “has been living in a village since” is the most suitable replacement.

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence:

They enjoyed during the holidays.

Explanation: The verb “enjoy” is commonly used reflexively in this structure as “enjoyed themselves.” Therefore, the correct sentence is “They enjoyed themselves during the holidays.”

A sentence is provided in indirect speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech.

She mentioned that she was working on a classified project.

Explanation: In indirect speech, “she was working” changes back to “I am working” in direct speech. Therefore, the sentence “She said, ‘I am working on a classified project.’” correctly conveys the original indirect sentence.

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech.

Rita said, “Please close the window.”

Explanation: The word “Please” indicates a request, so “said” changes to “requested” in indirect speech. The imperative form “close the window” is correctly converted into “to close the window.”

Rearrange the following sentences to form a meaningful passage:

meaningful passage: 1. Protein folding determines its biological function. 2. Misfolding can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s. 3. Molecular chaperones assist in correct folding. 4. AI tools like AlphaFold predict structures accurately.

Explanation: The passage should begin with the main idea that protein folding determines biological function. Then it logically explains that molecular chaperones assist in correct folding, followed by the consequence of misfolding, and finally mentions AI tools like AlphaFold that predict structures accurately.

Rearrange the following sentences to form a meaningful passage:

1. Therefore, critical evaluation of sources is paramount. 2. The proliferation of information online is immense. 3. Not all information is accurate or unbiased. 4. Media literacy skills are essential for navigating this landscape.

Explanation: The passage should start with the large amount of information available online. It then explains the problem that not all information is accurate or unbiased. Therefore, critical evaluation becomes necessary, and media literacy skills are essential for navigating this information landscape.