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

Concept: Pull yourself together means to regain control of your emotions and become calm after being upset.

1. Example: ‘Pull yourself together – crying won’t help now.’
2. ‘Feel agitated’ is the opposite; the options about the rich and orphans are irrelevant.

Trick: Pull yourself together = collect yourself = calm down.

Answer: (C) Calm down after an upsetting incident

Concept: Subject–verb agreement: a singular subject (he/she/it) takes is, not are.

1. ‘He are very thirsty’ → ‘He is very thirsty’.
2. ‘Give him a little water to drink’ is correct – a little = some (positive sense), used with uncountable ‘water’.

Trick: He/She/It + is/was/has; We/You/They + are/were/have.

Answer: (C) He are very thirsty

Concept: Talk through one’s hat means to talk foolishly or say nonsense about something one knows little about.

1. The speaker ignored him because his words were nonsense.
2. ‘Talking non-stop’/‘garrulously’ refer to quantity of speech, not its foolishness; ‘ignorantly’ is close but the standard meaning is ‘talking nonsense’.

Trick: Talking through the hat = बकवास करना.

Answer: (C) Talking nonsense

Concept: A glutton is a person who eats (or consumes) excessively.

1. Garrulous = excessively talkative.
2. Greedy = having excessive desire for anything (money, power) – an adjective, not specific to eating.
3. Gullible = easily deceived.

Trick: Glutton → gluttony = over-eating (पेटू).

Answer: (A) Glutton

Concept: Profane means secular/worldly, or showing disrespect to what is holy.

1. Divine = holy, of God – the opposite of profane (sacred ↔ profane).
2. Perverse = unreasonable/wicked; Immaterial = irrelevant; Barnyard = farmyard/crude.

Trick: Profane (अपवित्र/सांसारिक) ↔ divine/sacred (दिव्य/पवित्र).

Answer: (C) Divine

Concept: To express an opinion about how something appears to be, we use seem: ‘X seems too much’.

1. ‘Fifty rupees seems too much for such a pen’ = it appears to be an excessive price.
2. A sum of money is treated as singular → seems.
3. ‘looks’ is used for visual appearance; ‘minds’ and ‘price’ make no grammatical sense.

Trick: Amount of money (singular) + seems = an opinion of value.

Answer: (D) seems

Concept: Hideous means extremely ugly or unpleasant to look at.

1. Attractive = pleasing to look at – direct opposite.
2. Restorative = healing; Lament = express grief; Healthful = good for health – unrelated.

Trick: Hideous (बहुत भद्दा) ↔ attractive (आकर्षक).

Answer: (A) Attractive

Concept: The noun is formed from mountaineer (mountain + -eer): mountaineer → mountaineering.

1. ‘Mountainering’ misses the ‘e’ of the suffix -eer.
2. ‘Mounteineering’, ‘Mountainearing’ and ‘Mountainouring’ distort the spelling.
3. Correct: Mountaineering.

Trick: mountain + EER (like engineer) + ing.

Answer: (C) Mountaineering

Concept: Names of particular ships take the definite article the (the Titanic, the Neptune).

1. ‘a Neptune’ is in apposition to ‘One of their freighters’ and names one specific ship.
2. So it should be ‘the Neptune’: ‘One of their freighters, the Neptune, will be leaving in two weeks.’
3. ‘will be leaving in two weeks’ (future continuous for a planned event) is correct.

Trick: Ships, trains, rivers, oceans → ‘the’: the Titanic, the Rajdhani, the Ganga.

Answer: (D) a Neptune

Concept: Correct spelling: commuter (a person who travels regularly to work) – double ‘m’, single ‘t’.

1. ‘Comutter’ reverses the doubling (single m, double t) – incorrect.
2. Commission, Committee and Camouflage are spelt correctly.

Trick: coMMuTer – commute has double m like ‘community’.

Answer: (B) Comutter

Concept: The sentence explains the origin of a term from Latin movere (to move).

1. The passage is about motivation, and ‘motivation’ comes from movere – ‘movement of activity’.
2. ‘psychology’, ‘human behaviour’ and ‘instinct’ are not derived from movere.

Trick: Motive/motion/motivation all share the root mov-.

Answer: (D) motivation

Concept: What do we explain in everyday life ‘in terms of motives’? Our actions, i.e. behaviour.

1. The opening line says motivation explains what ‘moves’ behaviour; the blank continues this.
2. ‘motivation … in terms of motives’ would be circular; ‘goal’ and ‘incentive’ are themselves parts of motivation (last line).

Trick: Motives explain behaviour – the key word repeated throughout the passage.

Answer: (A) behaviour

Concept: Look for clues later in the same passage.

1. The passage later says: ‘motives are the general states that enable us to make predictions about behaviour’.
2. ‘make predictions about behaviour’ is the natural collocation; ‘clarifications’, ‘directions’, ‘decisions’ do not fit this idea.

Trick: In cloze tests the passage often repeats the answer word – scan ahead.

Answer: (B) predictions

Concept: A person works hard in school, sports, business and music when he/she has a strong need for achievement (a standard motive in psychology).

1. ‘need for achievement(s)’ fits the idea of working hard to succeed.
2. ‘need for motivation’ is circular; ‘desire’ already means need; ‘grow’ is a verb and cannot follow ‘for’ here.

Trick: Hard work in every field ← need for achievement.

Answer: (A) achievements

Concept: Motivation is presented as something that ‘moves’ and predicts behaviour – i.e. a factor that decides behaviour.

1. Determinants = factors that decide or shape something → ‘motivation is one of the determinants of behaviour’.
2. ‘meaning’ and ‘ways’ do not fit; ‘causes’ is possible but ‘determinants’ is the precise academic term that includes instincts, drives, needs, goals and incentives.

Trick: ‘one of the determinants of …’ – standard phrase in psychology texts.

Answer: (D) determinants

Concept: In the passage ‘accurate’ (information that is accurate and reliable) means correct and free from error.

1. Antonym = not correct/precise → inexact.
2. ‘Correct’ and ‘Precise’ are synonyms; ‘Reliable’ is used alongside it in the passage with a similar sense.

Trick: Accurate ↔ inaccurate/inexact.

Answer: (B) Inexact

Concept: The main theme is the idea that runs through most paragraphs.

1. After one line on benefits, every paragraph deals with misinformation on social media – its spread, COVID-19 harm, historical propaganda, speed of spread and remedies.
2. Education (A) and propaganda (C) are only supporting parts; benefits (D) get one sentence.

Trick: Main theme = the idea in almost every paragraph, not one example.

Answer: (B) The dangers of spreading false information on social media.

Concept: Match each option with what the passage says.

1. (A) and (B): the passage calls for teaching critical thinking and how to discern credible sources – their lack is implied as a cause.
2. (C): it asks to hold social media companies accountable – implying their failure.
3. (D): people’s desire for sensational content is never mentioned → NOT a cause per the passage.

Trick: For ‘NOT stated’ questions, eliminate options that the passage supports.

Answer: (D) The desire of people to engage in controversial and sensational content.

Concept: The author’s view is balanced but concerned.

1. Opening: social media ‘has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate’ and connected people.
2. But it has ‘downsides’ – misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, loss of lives.
3. (A) and (D) ignore the harm; (B) ‘otherwise neutral’ contradicts the stated benefits.

Trick: Author’s opinion = combine the opening claim and the main concern.

Answer: (C) Social media has changed the way we communicate, but has also brought about significant negative consequences.

Concept: The purpose is shown by the conclusion: ‘We must be vigilant against the spread of misinformation’.

1. The whole passage describes the harm of misinformation and asks for vigilance → a warning.
2. (B) benefits are not analysed in depth; (C) history is only an example; (D) deleting accounts is never suggested – the author says ‘use it wisely’.

Trick: Purpose questions – read the last paragraph; it usually states the aim.

Answer: (A) To warn readers of the dangers of spreading false information on social media.