SSC CGL 2025 PYQs

Concept: For 'not mentioned' questions, tick off each option against the passage.

1. Listed concerns: job displacement ✓, algorithmic bias ✓, privacy invasion ✓, autonomous weapons.
2. Environmental impact is never mentioned.

Trick: Three options appear word-for-word in one sentence of the passage; the missing one is the answer.

Answer: (C) Environmental impact

Concept: 'Crucial for the future' questions are answered in the final lines.

1. The last sentence says a joint effort of policymakers, technologists, ethicists and the public – a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach – is crucial.
2. Government-only control, pure market self-regulation or military focus go against the passage's call for balance.

Trick: Extreme words like 'solely', 'limiting to' rarely match a balanced passage – remove them first.

Answer: (C) A collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to development and policy

Concept: Indirect → direct: undo the backshift and restore first-person pronouns.

1. 'had witnessed' (past perfect) goes back to 'have witnessed' (present perfect).
2. 'he/his' → 'I/my'; 'never before' → 'never … before'.
3. Direct: "I have never witnessed such intellectual curiosity in my students before," said the professor.
4. (B) wrong tense; (C), (D) faulty word order.

Trick: Past perfect in reported speech usually comes from present perfect or simple past – look for 'have + V3' in the options.

Answer: (A) "I have never witnessed such intellectual curiosity in my students before," said the professor.

Concept: Process paragraphs follow the real-life order of steps.

1. Start: seeds are sown (1).
2. Seeds germinate and seedlings appear (4).
3. Plants are watered to grow (3).
4. Finally the mature crop is harvested (2). Order: 1-4-3-2.

Trick: Fix the first (sowing) and last (harvest) steps; only one option has 1 first and 2 last with 4 right after 1.

Answer: (A) 1-4-3-2

Concept: Use the opener (definition), pronoun links ('It', 'This') and conclusion words ('therefore').

1. 2 defines ecosystem resilience – the opening line.
2. 4 begins with 'It involves…' – 'It' refers to resilience in 2.
3. 1 begins with 'This adaptability…' – sums up 4.
4. 3 has 'therefore' – the conclusion. Order: 2, 4, 1, 3.

Trick: A sentence with 'therefore' usually closes the paragraph, and one starting with a pronoun cannot open it.

Answer: (A) 2, 4, 1, 3

Concept: 'In the doldrums' = in a dull, low or stagnant state; nothing moving forward.

1. The startup lost its funds and stayed stuck for months — no growth, no activity.
2. (A) and (B) are positive; (D) is the literal opposite (doldrums are windless zones).

Yaad rakhein: The Doldrums is a calm belt near the equator where sailing ships got stuck without wind — hence 'stuck, inactive'.

Answer: (C) In a state of depression or inactivity

Concept: Reclaimable = that can be recovered or reformed.

1. Incorrigible = so bad that it cannot be corrected or reformed — opposite.
2. Redeemable and Salvable = can be saved (synonyms); Penitent = feeling sorry.

Trick: Two options are synonyms of the word — strike them out first; 'in-' (not) + 'corrigible' (correctable) gives the opposite.

Answer: (D) Incorrigible

Concept: After insist/demand/suggest/recommend + that, use 'should + base verb' (or the bare base verb).

1. 'insisted that she comes' is wrong — no -s form after these verbs.
2. Correct: 'Emily insisted that she should come with us.'

Trick: Spot a 'demand' verb + that ⇒ look for 'should' in the options.

Answer: (B) should come with us

Concept: Past-perfect conditionals (type 3) keep the same tense in both direct and indirect speech.

1. Reported clause: the 'had … sooner … might have been' clause.
2. In direct speech it stays word-for-word inside quotes.
3. (B) turns it into type 1, (C) mixes tenses, (D) 'Had … react' is wrong.

Trick: 'Had + subject + V3' is an inverted 'If … had V3' — it never changes in narration.

Answer: (A) The analyst said, "Had the market reacted sooner, the losses might have been contained."

Concept: Build the word: hallucin(ation) + -o- + -genic (producing).

1. Correct: H-A-L-L-U-C-I-N-O-G-E-N-I-C.
2. (B) drops 'e' (-gnic), (C) uses 'a' for 'o', (D) adds an extra 's'.

Trick: Same ending as 'carcinogenic', 'photogenic' — always '-ogenic'.

Answer: (A) Hallucinogenic

Concept: Atheist = a person who does not believe God exists.

1. Renegade = one who betrays a group or cause.
2. Heretic = one holding views against accepted religious teaching (may still believe in God).
3. Apostate = one who gives up his religion.

Trick: 'a-' = without, 'theos' = God ⇒ a-theist = without God. (Theist believes; agnostic is unsure.)

Answer: (B) Atheist

Concept: Heresy = a belief opposed to established (especially religious) doctrine.

1. Sedition = speech or action inciting rebellion against the state.
2. Apostasy = giving up one's religion; Schism = split of a group into factions.

Yaad rakhein: Heresy (belief) → Heretic (person); Apostasy (act) → Apostate (person).

Answer: (B) Heresy

Concept: When rarely, seldom, never, hardly etc. begin a sentence, the helping verb comes before the subject.

1. Normal order: There has been …
2. Inverted after 'Rarely': Rarely has there been …
3. (B) and (D) are not inverted; (C) 'was been' is wrong.

Trick: Negative adverb first ⇒ make it look like a question: 'has there been?'

Answer: (A) has there been

Concept: General background → main idea → action → result.

1. 2 opens: rising demand makes cleaner energy urgent.
2. 1 names the answer: solar and wind as alternatives.
3. 3 shows action: governments/companies invest; 4 'This shift' sums up the benefits.

Trick: 'This shift' (4) needs a shift described before it, so 4 is last; 2 is the broadest, so first ⇒ only (A) and (C) start with 2, and 1 must precede 3.

Answer: (A) 2, 1, 3, 4

Concept: Reconcile = make conflicting facts or views agree with each other.

1. The object is 'conflicting accounts', so the historian must bring them into agreement.
2. Revise = change/edit; retract = take back; retrospect = looking back (noun, not a verb).

Trick: 'Conflicting' is the clue word — conflicts get reconciled.

Answer: (A) reconcile

Concept: do/does/did is always followed by the base form (V1) of the verb.

1. Part (1): 'Hardly did the manager knew' — 'knew' is V2, wrong.
2. Correct: 'Hardly did the manager know that …'.
3. The inversion 'Hardly did' itself is fine.

Trick: Did + V2 is a double past — one past marker is enough.

Answer: (A) (1)

Concept: Present perfect passive: has/have + been + V3; in a question, 'Has' comes first.

1. Active: Has the technician repaired the faulty circuit?
2. Object becomes subject: the faulty circuit (singular ⇒ has).
3. Passive: Has the faulty circuit been repaired by the technician?

Trick: Tense must stay the same — keep 'Has … been'; (A), (C) and (D) change the tense or drop 'been'.

Answer: (B) Has the faulty circuit been repaired by the technician?

Concept: A noun clause beginning with 'What' acts as a singular subject.

1. Subject = 'What we need right now' (one thing).
2. Complement 'a strong leader' is also singular.
3. So 'are' must be 'is' ⇒ error in part (2).

Trick: Replace the 'What' clause with 'The thing' — 'The thing we need is a strong leader'.

Answer: (B) (2)

Concept: A homonym has the same spelling/sound but a different meaning.

1. Given sentence: 'current route' = present / now in use.
2. (A) 'ocean current' = a flow of water — a different meaning ✓.
3. (B), (C), (D) all use 'current' as 'present-day' — same meaning, so not homonyms here.

Trick: Three options share one meaning — the odd meaning out is the homonym.

Answer: (A) The ocean current was unusually strong near the bridge.

Concept: had been + V3 (passive) ⇔ had + V3 (active); tense stays past perfect.

1. Doer 'the researchers' becomes the subject.
2. 'had been completed' → 'had completed'.
3. Active: The researchers had completed the final report before the deadline.

Trick: Find the option that keeps 'had' — only (B).

Answer: (B) The researchers had completed the final report before the deadline.