SSC CPO Paper I 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 PYQs

Concept: Hear someone out means to listen to someone until they have finished speaking, without interrupting.

1. Example: ‘Please hear me out before you decide.’
2. ‘Hear from far away’ takes the words literally; ‘Dismiss someone’ and ‘Keep someone out’ are opposite in spirit.

Trick: Hear OUT = hear till the end (out = completely).

Answer: (A) Let someone complete what they are saying

Concept: Ethical means morally right, following principles of right conduct.

1. Immoral = not following accepted moral standards – direct opposite.
2. Discord = disagreement; Joyous = happy; Mourning = grief – unrelated to morality.

Trick: Ethical = moral ↔ unethical = immoral.

Answer: (D) Immoral

Concept: Vagrancy is the state of wandering from place to place without a home or regular work. The closest given word is vagabond, which describes such wandering (as a noun, a homeless wanderer; as an adjective, wandering).

1. Vagrancy and vagabond share the Latin root vagari = to wander.
2. Vagueness = lack of clarity – only looks similar.
3. Exploration = purposeful travel to discover; Fragrance = pleasant smell.

Trick: Vag- = wander: vagrant, vagrancy, vagabond.

Answer: (C) Vagabond

Concept: Build castles in the air means to make plans or day-dream about things that are unlikely ever to happen.

1. Example: ‘Instead of working, he keeps building castles in the air.’
2. ‘useless efforts’ and ‘talking pointlessly’ miss the idea of daydreaming; ‘a palatial house’ is the literal meaning.

Trick: Castles in the air = हवाई किले = imaginary plans.

Answer: (C) To make imaginary schemes

Concept: Bite your tongue means to stop yourself from saying something you would like to say, usually to avoid offence.

1. Example: ‘I wanted to argue, but I bit my tongue.’
2. It is not scolding (opposite), nor drinking or exploring.

Trick: Biting the tongue physically stops speech → hold back words.

Answer: (C) To avoid saying something

Concept: Present perfect tense = has/have + past participle (V3).

1. ‘has dedicate’ uses the base form after ‘has’ – wrong.
2. Correct: ‘Lily has dedicated her life towards becoming a doctor.’
3. ‘had dedicate’ and ‘is dedicate’ also lack the participle form.

Trick: has/have/had are always followed by V3 (dedicated), never V1.

Answer: (D) has dedicated

Concept: Diabolical means devilish, extremely wicked or cruel.

1. Malicious = intending harm, spiteful – closest meaning.
2. Sycophant = a flatterer (noun); Celestial = heavenly (nearly opposite); Sophisticated = refined/complex.

Trick: Diabolical ← diabolos (devil) → devilish → malicious.

Answer: (A) Malicious

Concept: Correct spelling: exaggerate – with a double ‘g’.

1. Legitimate, Propagate and Promulgate are spelt correctly.
2. ‘Exagerate’ has a single g, so it is incorrect.

Trick: eXAGGerate – exaggeration makes things bigger, so the ‘g’ is doubled.

Answer: (B) Exagerate

Concept: Absolve means to declare someone free from blame, guilt or a charge.

1. In the sentence the court freed the defendant of all charges.
2. Accuse = to charge someone with an offence, i.e. to put blame on him – the opposite of freeing him from blame.
3. Attacked and criticised do not concern legal charges; condemned means sentenced/declared guilty after trial, the result of a charge rather than the act of charging.

Trick: Absolve = free from charges ↔ accuse = bring charges.

Answer: (A) accused

Concept: Check the key words: despite and situation.

1. (B) ‘dispete’ and (D) ‘dispite’ misspell despite.
2. (C) ‘despete’ and ‘sitution’ are both wrong.
3. Only (A) has every word spelt correctly.

Trick: de-SPITE (like ‘spite’) and situ-A-tion.

Answer: (A) The country’s GDP bloomed despite the ongoing war situation.

Concept: Calm means peaceful, still, free from disturbance.

1. Turbulent = violently disturbed, stormy, chaotic – direct opposite (calm sea ↔ turbulent sea).
2. Shocked, Variable and Confused describe other states, not the opposite of stillness.

Trick: Calm waters ↔ turbulent waters.

Answer: (A) Turbulent

Concept: To perch (oneself) means to sit or rest on a high or narrow place, like a bird on a branch.

1. ‘The cat climbed a tree and perched itself on a branch’ is correct and meaningful.
2. Parched = very dry/thirsty; perked = became lively; perished = died – none fits.

Trick: Perch = sit on a branch/edge; parched = dry.

Answer: (B) No substitution required

Concept: The correct form is persistency (more commonly persistence) – it ends in ‘-ency/-ence’, not ‘-ancy’.

1. inconceivable, convictions and deductions are spelt correctly.
2. ‘persistancy’ wrongly uses ‘-ancy’; persist → persistent → persistence/persistency.

Trick: persistENT → persistENCE: the ‘e’ of the adjective stays in the noun.

Answer: (D) persistancy

Concept: A modal verb (would, can, will, should …) is always followed by the base form (V1) of the verb.

1. ‘would passes’ wrongly adds -es after the modal.
2. Correct: ‘I am sure Helena would pass with flying colours.’
3. ‘with flying colours’ (= with great success) is correct.

Trick: Modal + V1 only: would pass, can go, should eat.

Answer: (A) would passes

Concept: Discrepancy means a lack of agreement or a difference between things that should match.

1. The two audit reports should have matched but did not → a difference.
2. ‘great similarity’ is the opposite; ‘deliberate mistake’ and ‘selfish interest’ change the meaning.

Trick: Discrepancy = mismatch (आंकड़ों में अंतर).

Answer: (C) major difference

Concept: Despite is a preposition used without ‘of’; in spite of always takes ‘of’.

1. ‘Despite of an injury’ is wrong – ‘of’ is extra.
2. Correct: ‘Despite an injury, he won the match.’ (= In spite of an injury)
3. ‘In spite off’ and ‘In despite of’ are incorrect forms.

Trick: Despite – no ‘of’; In spite – needs ‘of’.

Answer: (C) Despite

Concept: A habitual action (signalled by often) takes the simple present; with a singular subject the verb takes -s/-es.

1. Subject ‘My teacher’ is third person singular.
2. So ‘forget’ → ‘forgets’: ‘My teacher often forgets the names of students.’
3. ‘was forgetting’, ‘forgot’ are past; ‘have been forgetting’ disagrees with a singular subject.

Trick: Often/usually/always + 3rd person singular → V1 + s/es.

Answer: (D) forgets

Concept: Loaves and fishes means material benefits or personal gains, especially those that come with a position.

1. The sentence contrasts selfish gains of office with ‘the service of man’ → ‘loaves and fishes of office’.
2. Leaps and bounds = rapid progress; wear and tear = damage from use; Herculean task = very hard task – none fits.

Trick: Loaves and fishes = रोटी-मछली = personal profit.

Answer: (B) loaves and fishes

Concept: Let the cat out of the bag means to reveal a secret, usually carelessly or by mistake.

1. Example: ‘The surprise party was ruined when Ravi let the cat out of the bag.’
2. ‘To hide the truth’ is the opposite; ‘hurry’ and ‘careful’ are unrelated.

Trick: Cat out of the bag = secret out (भेद खोल देना).

Answer: (D) To reveal a secret

Concept: Sluggish means slow-moving, lazy, lacking energy.

1. Swift = fast, quick – direct opposite.
2. Slow is a synonym; Abnormal and Utterly (an adverb) are unrelated.

Trick: Sluggish (like a slug, slow) ↔ swift.

Answer: (C) Swift