SSC CHSL 2025 PYQs

Concept: Autopsy = examination of a dead body to find cause of death.

1. Post-mortem examination → Autopsy.
2. Biopsy = tissue test from a living body.
3. Forensic = related to crime science; crematorium = place for burning the dead.

Trick: auto (self) + opsy (seeing) = autopsy; bio (life) + opsy = biopsy on the living.

Answer: (C) Autopsy

Concept: Amicable = friendly, peaceful.

1. Opposite: unfriendly → Uncongenial.
2. Affable and genial are synonyms of amicable.
3. Tolerant = accepting, not the opposite of friendly.

Trick: Look for a negative prefix (un-, in-, dis-) on a friendly word — 'un+congenial' flips the meaning.

Answer: (C) Uncongenial

Concept: Extempore = spoken without any preparation.

1. Key phrase: 'without preparation' → extempore.
2. Monologue = long speech by one person; dialogue = conversation.
3. Oration = formal, usually prepared speech.

Trick: 'Extempore' sounds like 'ex-tempo' = out of time to prepare — think on-the-spot.

Answer: (C) Extempore

Concept: 'X is believed to be…' becomes 'People believe that…' in the active voice.

1. 'Is believed' has no doer → add 'People believe that'.
2. Inner part: agent 'panic selling traders' becomes subject; verb 'caused'; object 'the market's sudden crash'.
3. So the active form opens with 'People believe that' and uses the simple past 'caused'.

Trick: For is said / is believed / is thought — start the active with 'People say/believe/think that'.

Answer: (C) People believe that panic selling traders caused the market's sudden crash.

Concept: Past reporting verb → back-shift tense; change pronouns to the reporter's view.

1. 'will be climbing' → 'would be climbing'.
2. 'we' (the captain's group) → 'they'.
3. Join with 'that' and remove the inverted commas.

Trick: Check two things only: 'would' ✔ and 'they' ✔ — only A has both.

Answer: (A) The captain said that they would be climbing the mountain all day.

Concept: A pronoun that is the object of a preposition takes the objective case.

1. 'Except for' is a preposition → him, her (not he, she).
2. 'Except for him and her' is already correct.
3. A, C, D all use subject forms he/she.

Trick: Cover the other pronoun: 'except for him' sounds right, 'except for he' doesn't.

Answer: (B) Except for him and her, everyone passed the test

Concept: Did + V1 (active) → was/were + V3 (passive).

1. Object 'the delicious meal' (singular) becomes subject → 'was'.
2. cook → cooked; adverb 'quickly' stays before the main verb.
3. Pattern: Why + was + object + adverb + V3 + by + agent?

Trick: 'did' in active = 'was/were' in passive. Drop options with 'been' or 'has' (tense changed) and 'did…be'.

Answer: (A) Why was the delicious meal quickly cooked by the famous chef?

Concept: Reverse the reporting changes: restore pronouns and tense.

1. 'he/his' refer to the director → 'I/my' inside quotes.
2. 'was going' → 'am going' (undo the back-shift).
3. Drop 'that', use 'said,' and put the speaker's exact words in quotes.

Trick: In direct speech the speaker talks about himself → look for 'I' + present tense; only D has both.

Answer: (D) The director said, "I am going to shoot several action scenes for my movie."

Concept: Arrange actions in the order a task is actually done.

1. P: find and flag the errors (first step).
2. Q: fix the bugs and rewrite scripts.
3. R: compile, upload, connect databases; S: the app runs smoothly (result).

Trick: Debug → fix → deploy → result. Only option B starts with P and ends with S.

Answer: (B) P, Q, R, S

Concept: Start with the sentence that introduces the subject; end with the outcome.

1. S introduces 'a revolutionary new vaccine'.
2. R uses 'It' → must come right after S.
3. Q: scientists test it; P: 'As a consequence' gives the final result.

Trick: Pronoun 'It' can never open a paragraph, and 'As a consequence' can never come first → only S-R-Q-P works.

Answer: (A) S, R, Q, P

Concept: 'It's' = it is / it has; ownership is shown by 'its' (no apostrophe).

1. Part B: 'but it's binding' would mean 'but it is binding' – meaningless here.
2. The binding belongs to the manuscript, so a possessive is needed: 'but its binding had deteriorated'.
3. A, C and D are grammatically fine.

Trick: Expand the apostrophe word: if 'it is' does not fit, write 'its'.

Answer: (B) were carefully handled, but it's binding

Concept: A past participle (V3) cannot be the main verb without has/have/had.

1. 'Yesterday' shows a finished past time → simple past (V2) is needed.
2. 'see – saw – seen': 'seen' is V3 and has no helping verb here.
3. Correct: 'Yesterday, I saw a fantastic film…'

Trick: Time words like yesterday / last week / ago → always V2, never 'have + V3' or bare V3.

Answer: (B) seen a fantastic film

Concept: 'After' shows that one action follows another.

1. Order of events: homework finished first → then play.
2. So the children played after finishing the homework.
3. 'During' = at the same time; 'until' = up to that point; 'for' shows purpose/duration – all break the logic.

Trick: Ask 'which happened first?' – if the -ing action came first, use 'after'.

Answer: (C) after

Concept: Two opposite ideas joined after a semicolon need a contrast connector like 'however'.

1. Idea 1: she wanted to attend. Idea 2: she missed it.
2. Wish vs. reality = contrast → however.
3. moreover = addition, therefore = result, similarly = comparison.

Trick: Opposite ideas → however / nevertheless; extra idea → moreover; result → therefore.

Answer: (B) however

Concept: 'Campaign' (a planned series of actions) ends in -aign with a silent g.

1. Correct pattern: c-a-m-p-a-i-g-n.
2. Campain (no g), Campagin (g before i), Campign (no a) are all wrong.

Yaad rakhein: Same silent-g ending: reign, foreign, sovereign, champagne-like 'campaign'.

Answer: (C) Campaign

Concept: 'Wind' as a noun = moving air; as a verb (/waɪnd/) = to turn or twist.

1. In 'The cold wind howled…', wind is air in motion (noun).
2. A: wind the clock = turn the key (verb). B and C: wind its way = move in curves (verb).
3. D: here the gust is simply air in motion → same sense.

Trick: Put 'air' in place of wind – only option D still makes sense.

Answer: (D) A strong gust of wind nearly blew off his hat.

Concept: 'Durable' = long-lasting; root 'dur' + suffix '-able'.

1. dur + able = Durable (the 'e' is not kept).
2. Durible (-ible), Dewrable (wrong root), Dureable (extra e) are incorrect.

Yaad rakhein: Root 'dur' = to last: duration, endure, durable.

Answer: (A) Durable

Concept: Look for the contrast word in the opening line: 'more efficient but also …'.

1. Line 1: digital elections are efficient but 'more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats'.
2. It then lists hacking, data manipulation and intrusions as the risks.
3. Cost, slower counting or low turnout are never mentioned.

Trick: The point after 'but' is usually the drawback the question wants.

Answer: (C) Greater exposure to cyber threats

Concept: The harm of 'perceived' insecurity is to people's belief, not to the machines.

1. Paragraph 1 says disruption can 'weaken public trust in democratic institutions'.
2. Then: mere perception of insecurity is as damaging as real interference – i.e. it erodes trust.
3. Legal disputes, campaigning, delayed results are not discussed.

Trick: 'Perception' questions → answer is about trust/confidence, not about physical effects.

Answer: (C) It undermines public trust in elections

Concept: Foreign actors work indirectly – they sow confusion instead of changing votes.

1. Paragraph 2: 'Rather than altering vote counts' – so option A is ruled out directly.
2. Their aim: spread confusion, deepen divisions, cast doubt on legitimacy.
3. Law reform and party funding are not mentioned.

Trick: 'Rather than X' in a passage = X is the trap option.

Answer: (B) Spreading confusion and doubt