SSC CPO Paper II 2021, 2025 PYQs

Concept: An active question with 'Who' as subject becomes a passive question beginning with 'By whom'.

1. 'Who' → 'By whom'.
2. Simple past 'grew' → 'were ... grown' (plural object 'these poinsettias').
3. Passive: 'By whom were these poinsettias grown?'
4. 'by who' is wrong; C reverses the meaning; D puts 'by whom' at the end incorrectly.

Trick: Who + V2 ...? → By whom + was/were + object + V3?

Answer: (A) By whom were these poinsettias grown?

Concept: The idiom is 'pull someone's leg'.

1. It means to tease or joke with someone by making them believe something untrue.
2. Ears, hand and nose do not form this idiom.
3. Example: Don't worry, I was only pulling your leg.

Yaad rakhein: Pull someone's leg = playfully fool someone.

Answer: (A) leg

Concept: Simple past active (V2) → passive 'was/were + V3', object becomes subject, doer goes after 'by'.

1. Object 'a new product' → subject.
2. 'launched' → 'was launched'.
3. 'by the company' + 'in the market yesterday' → 'A new product was launched in the market by the company yesterday.'
4. A ('has launched') and B ('was launching') are wrong forms; C swaps company and product.

Trick: V2 → was/were + V3.

Answer: (D) A new product was launched in the market by the company yesterday.

Concept: An imperative with 'please' takes the reporting verb 'requested + object + to + V1'; a following statement joined by 'as' shifts present → past.

1. 'said to ... “Please send”' → 'requested Sunanda to send'.
2. 'I need to forward it' → 'as she needed to forward that/it' (need → needed; I → she).
3. B uses 'ordered' (not polite) and keeps 'needs'; C keeps direct-speech structure; D uses 'told' and changes the meaning to 'was going to'.

Trick: Please → requested; order → ordered; advice → advised.

Answer: (A) Mary requested Sunanda to send the report by the end of the day as she needed to forward that to the client.

Concept: Correct pairs are 'no sooner ... than' (with inversion: 'No sooner had ... than') and 'as soon as'. 'No sooner as' is never correct.

1. Here the clause comes after the main clause, so 'as soon as' fits naturally: 'The car turned upside down as soon as it hit the light pole.'
2. 'no sooner than it had hit' is wrong in position and tense; 'no soon as' is ungrammatical.

Trick: no sooner → than; as soon as → no 'than'.

Answer: (C) as soon as it hit

Concept: A singular third-person subject in the simple present takes the verb with -s/-es.

1. Subject 'The carpenter' is singular.
2. So 'work' must be 'works': 'The carpenter works on that table from morning to evening.'
3. The other segments are correct.

Trick: He/She/It/singular noun + V1 + s (simple present).

Answer: (C) The carpenter work

Concept: General truths and permanent facts are expressed in the simple present, not the present continuous.

1. The sentence states a general fact about destinations.
2. So 'are offering' should be 'offer': '... destinations offer something for everyone.'
3. The other parts are correct.

Trick: Universal/general statement → simple present.

Answer: (C) are offering something for everyone

Concept: 'Hypocrite' means a person who pretends to have virtues or qualities that he or she does not have.

1. The given phrase exactly describes 'Hypocrite'.
2. Sycophant = a flatterer who praises powerful people for gain.
3. Parasite = one who lives off others.
4. Philanthropist = one who donates to help others.

Yaad rakhein: Hypocrite → hypocrisy = pretence of virtue.

Answer: (C) Hypocrite

Concept: Follow the natural sequence of actions and link pronouns ('She', 'He', 'them') to the right nouns.

1. A introduces Mother bringing water and betel leaves — the opening.
2. D: Father drinks the water and holds out his hand (for the betel) → A–D.
3. B: 'She gave him the areca-nut and ... betel leaves' answers the held-out hand → D–B.
4. C: 'He put them all into his mouth' — 'them' = the leaves and nut → B–C. Order: ADBC.

Trick: Bring → drink → give → chew: ADBC.

Answer: (B) ADBC

Concept: In reported speech with a past reporting verb: simple present → simple past, 'this' → 'that', first-person pronoun → third person.

1. 'said to the artist' → 'told the artist that'.
2. 'This face does not look' → 'that face did not look' (does not → did not).
3. 'my sister's' → 'her sister's'.
4. B (past perfect) and C (past continuous) shift the tense wrongly; A keeps the direct-speech forms.

Trick: does not + V1 → did not + V1; this → that; my → her.

Answer: (D) Amanda told the artist that that face did not look like her sister’s.

Concept: The fixed phrase is 'apart from' (meaning 'besides / in addition to'), never 'apart with'.

1. 'Apart with eco-tourism activities' → 'Apart from eco-tourism activities and jungle safaris, ...'.
2. The other parts ('is gearing up', 'to introduce', 'stargazing experiences for tourists') are correct.

Trick: apart from = besides; different from; free from.

Answer: (B) Apart with eco-tourism activities and jungle safaris

Concept: Exclamatory sentences take 'exclaimed with joy that'; with a past reporting verb, 'can' → 'could', simple past → past perfect, and 'we' → 'they'.

1. 'can't believe' → 'couldn't believe'.
2. 'we won' → 'they had won' (simple past → past perfect).
3. 'we' → 'they' in both places.
4. A keeps 'can't' and 'won'; B keeps 'we'; D keeps 'won'.

Trick: Two-step backshift: can → could, V2 → had + V3.

Answer: (C) They exclaimed with joy that they couldn't believe they had won the competition.

Concept: A verb is modified by an adverb. 'Good' is an adjective; its adverb form is 'well'.

1. 'speaks' is a verb → 'speaks English well'.
2. 'enough' follows the adverb: 'well enough to communicate'.
3. 'better enough' is wrong; 'is speaking' wrongly uses the continuous for a habit and keeps 'good'.

Trick: Verb + well; noun + good.

Answer: (C) He speaks English well enough

Concept: The verb 'struggle' takes the preposition 'with' when it means having difficulty with something.

1. 'to struggle on basic reading and arithmetic skills' is wrong.
2. Correct: 'to struggle with basic reading and arithmetic skills'.
3. The other segments are correct.

Yaad rakhein: struggle with (a difficulty), struggle for (a goal), struggle against (an opponent).

Answer: (C) to struggle on basic reading and arithmetic skills

Concept: With two objects, the personal (indirect) object usually becomes the subject in passive; simple past → 'was/were + V3'.

1. Indirect object 'the performer' → subject.
2. 'gave' → 'was given'.
3. 'hardly any money' stays; doer 'by the spectators' at the end.
4. 'The performer was given hardly any money by the spectators.' A reverses the roles; B and D change the tense.

Trick: gave → was given (person as subject).

Answer: (C) The performer was given hardly any money by the spectators.

Concept: Every sentence needs a finite (main) verb; a participle like 'unfolding' cannot act as the main verb alone.

1. Subject: 'This incredible discovery'. 'unfolding' is a participle, so the sentence has no main verb.
2. Correct: 'This incredible discovery unfolds the history of a time ...'.
3. The other segments are fine.

Trick: Subject + V-ing alone (without is/are) = no main verb → error.

Answer: (A) unfolding the history

Concept: 'Should' (advice) does not change in indirect speech; 'you' changes according to the listener (here, the person reporting → 'I').

1. 'said, “You should practice”' → 'said that I should practice'.
2. 'should' remains 'should'.
3. 'would', 'will' and 'should have practiced' change the meaning.

Trick: should, ought to, must (moral duty) remain unchanged.

Answer: (B) The coach said that I should practice every day.

Concept: 'Bring to book' means to punish someone or make them answer officially for their wrongdoing.

1. It is used for criminals or offenders being held accountable.
2. Example: The police vowed to bring the culprits to book.
3. It does not mean teaching, supporting or calming someone.

Yaad rakhein: Book here = the record of law/justice.

Answer: (B) Punish someone

Concept: 'Be required to + V1' is the correct passive pattern meaning 'must'.

1. 'are required to learn' is correct for a general present rule.
2. 'are requiring to learn' and 'are required learning' break the pattern; 'were require to learning' is wrong in form and tense.
3. So no improvement is needed.

Trick: required + to + V1 (infinitive).

Answer: (B) No improvement required

Concept: A biography is arranged in chronological order: birth → family → education → career.

1. A (birth in 1921) introduces Satyajit Ray — the opening.
2. C 'His father, Sukumar Ray ...' describes his family → A–C.
3. B (degree in 1940, Viswa-Bharati) is his education → C–B.
4. D (first movie in 1955) is his career achievement → B–D. Order: ACBD.

Trick: Biography: birth → parents → studies → work.

Answer: (C) ACBD