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

Concept: A positive statement takes a negative tag with the same auxiliary. For I am, the negative tag is irregular: aren’t I? (not ‘amn’t I’).

1. Statement: I am allowed … → positive, auxiliary am.
2. Tag must be negative → aren’t I?
3. am I is positive (wrong); can’t I / shall I use a different auxiliary.

Yaad rakhein: I am … , aren’t I? | I am not … , am I?

Answer: (B) aren’t I

Concept: With more than half / part of / most of + noun, the verb agrees with the noun after of.

1. the drain is singular → singular verb.
2. Present perfect passive: has been desilted.
3. have is plural; was/is + been is ungrammatical.

Trick: Half of the cake has … ; half of the cakes have … – look at the noun after ‘of’.

Answer: (A) has

Concept: An interjection must match the emotion of the sentence. Here the emotion is fear/shock (a frightening experience).

1. Oh! expresses surprise, shock or fear – fits.
2. Bravo = praise; Hurray = joy; Alas = sorrow/grief.
3. So: Oh! What a frightening experience it was!

Yaad rakhein: Alas – grief; Bravo – applause; Hurray – joy; Oh/Ah – surprise, fear, pain.

Answer: (A) Oh

Concept: The correct spelling is recommend – one c, double m.

1. re + commend (to praise) → recommend.
2. recomend (single m), reccommend (double c), recommened (extra e) are wrong.

Trick: re + commend: ‘commend’ already has double m and one c.

Answer: (A) recommend

Concept: Credulous = too ready to believe things; easily deceived.

1. Latin credere = to believe.
2. creditor = one to whom money is owed; reliable = trustworthy; plausible = seemingly true.
3. So a person who believes everything easily = credulous.

Yaad rakhein: Credulous (believes easily) vs credible (believable) vs incredulous (unwilling to believe).

Answer: (A) credulous

Concept: Blank 1 describes the skills of a man with ‘vivid imagination’ who made films – a quality linked with imagination.

1. Imagination + skills of a filmmaker → creative skills.
2. leading skills is not a natural collocation; original and clever do not pair as naturally with ‘skills’ in this context.
3. Creative skills fit the list ‘vivid imagination, creative skills and a passion for life’.

Trick: Words in a list usually share a theme – imagination → creative.

Answer: (A) creative

Concept: Blank 2 is an adjective for Hitchcock’s style, praised alongside his ‘God-gifted wit’ – so it must be positive and distinctive.

1. unique style = one of its kind – fits the praise.
2. ordinary and dull are negative; separate style does not make sense.

Yaad rakhein: Common collocation: a unique style / a distinctive style.

Answer: (C) unique

Concept: Before ‘of the most thrilling films’ (plural countable) we need a quantifier that can take ‘of the’ + plural noun.

1. some of the most thrilling films ✓.
2. much of is for uncountable nouns; more of the most … is illogical; any of is used in negatives/questions.

Trick: some of / many of / a few of + the + plural noun.

Answer: (D) some

Concept: To show the cause of an emotion or physical reaction, English uses with: tremble with fear, swoon with fright.

1. Audience swooning with fright – fright caused the swooning.
2. It parallels ‘falling off their seats with laughter’ in the same sentence.
3. by, of, through are not idiomatic here.

Yaad rakhein: shiver with cold, jump with joy, swoon with fright, cry with pain.

Answer: (A) with

Concept: ‘He was greatly ______ by American films and magazines’ – the films shaped his work; the verb that pairs naturally with ‘greatly … by’ is influenced.

1. influenced by = affected/shaped by ✓.
2. determined takes ‘to’; attached takes ‘to’; altered by means physically changed – does not fit.

Trick: greatly influenced by / deeply inspired by – standard collocations.

Answer: (D) influenced

Concept: Tide over = to help someone through / to get over a difficult period.

1. Example: This loan will tide us over until the harvest.
2. So the meaning is ‘to overcome’ (a difficulty).
3. Not ‘jump over’, ‘deceive’ or ‘change sides’.

Yaad rakhein: Like a boat carried over a rough patch by the tide – you get through the bad time.

Answer: (A) to overcome

Concept: Through thick and thin = in all situations, good or bad; under all circumstances.

1. Example: True friends stand by you through thick and thin.
2. It stresses loyalty in every condition, not only in pain or pressure.

Yaad rakhein: Thick and thin = good times and hard times together.

Answer: (C) under all circumstances

Concept: Honorary = holding a post without pay (or given as an honour), e.g. honorary secretary.

1. charity = help given to the needy; startup = a new business; freelance = working independently for pay.
2. Office without salary → honorary.

Trick: Honorary (unpaid/honour) vs honorarium (a token fee).

Answer: (B) honorary

Concept: Deficiency = a lack or shortage of something.

1. Opposite of shortage = excess (more than enough).
2. dearth is a synonym (scarcity); snag and glitch mean a small problem/fault.

Yaad rakhein: Deficiency ↔ excess, surplus, abundance.

Answer: (B) excess

Concept: An infinitive is to + base form (V1) of the verb. Thought is the past form/noun, so to thought is wrong.

1. to thought ✗ → to think ✓.
2. Correct: Sam took a little time to think before he replied.
3. Other parts are correct.

Trick: ‘to’ (infinitive marker) + V1 always: to go, to think, to write.

Answer: (B) to thought

Concept: A collective noun (jury, team, committee) is usually treated as one unit and takes a singular verb.

1. The jury is taken as a single body here → is.
2. So the error is in are from → is from.
3. Correct: The jury is from different parts of the country.

Yaad rakhein: Collective noun as one unit → singular verb (The jury is …); members acting separately → plural (The jury were divided).

Answer: (A) are from

Concept: Diverge = to move or spread apart in different directions.

1. Opposite = to come together = converge / collect (gather together).
2. branch, divide, stray all mean going apart – synonyms.

Yaad rakhein: Diverge ↔ converge, meet, gather.

Answer: (D) collect

Concept: The correct spelling is affiliate (double f). The option afiliate is misspelt.

1. inimical (hostile), etiquette (manners), adjourn (postpone) are all correct.
2. af + filiate (Latin filius = son) → affiliate.

Trick: Many ‘ad-’ words double the consonant: affiliate, affix, attach, allot.

Answer: (C) afiliate

Concept: Tumult = a loud, confused noise of a crowd; commotion.

1. Closest = uproar.
2. peace is the opposite; surprise and clarity are unrelated.

Yaad rakhein: Tumult ≈ uproar, commotion, turmoil, din.

Answer: (D) uproar

Concept: The fixed phrase for ‘more than one can afford/attain’ is beyond one’s reach (noun reach, not gerund reaching).

1. over his reaching and above his reaching are not English idioms.
2. away from reaching is awkward.
3. Correct: The large mansion was beyond his reach.

Yaad rakhein: beyond one’s reach / out of one’s reach / within one’s reach.

Answer: (D) beyond his reach