SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 02 – Section II · Part A · English Language & Comprehension
SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 02 – Section II · Part A · English Language & Comprehension – 45 questions, subject: Full Mock Tests. Every question has the correct answer with a one-line explanation; tap "Show Answer". Free practice for TNPSC, UPSC, SSC, Bank and RRB exams – Shanmugam IAS Academy, Coimbatore.
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Directions (Q 61–65): Each sentence below is divided into three segments. Select the segment that contains a grammatical error. If there is no error, select 'No error'.
Correct Answer: D [No error]
Explanation:
Tense, object and phrase are all correct.
Spot the errorMy sister / is fond of / to cook new dishes.
Correct Answer: C [to cook new dishes.]
Explanation:
'fond of' ends in a preposition and takes the -ing form → 'cooking new dishes'.
Spot the errorHe has / a good command on / the English language.
Correct Answer: B [a good command on]
Explanation:
Fixed phrase: 'a good command of' a language.
Spot the errorThe price of vegetables / have risen sharply / this month.
Correct Answer: B [have risen sharply]
Explanation:
The subject is 'The price' (singular), not 'vegetables' → 'has risen'.
Spot the errorWe discussed / the problem / for an hour but found no solution.
Correct Answer: D [No error]
Explanation:
'discuss' takes a direct object ('the problem').
Directions (Q 66–69): Select the most appropriate option to improve the underlined part of the sentence. If no improvement is needed, select 'No improvement'.
Correct Answer: B [was completed]
Explanation:
'yesterday' is a finished past time → simple past passive 'was completed'.
Sentence improvementThe child was so tired that he fell asleep at the table.
Correct Answer: D [No improvement]
Explanation:
'so + adjective + that' shows a result.
Sentence improvementMy friend gave me a good news.
Correct Answer: C [gave me good news]
Explanation:
'news' is uncountable and takes no 'a' → 'gave me good news'.
Sentence improvementHe has gone to London last month.
Correct Answer: A [went]
Explanation:
'last month' fixes a finished past time → simple past 'went'.
Directions (Q 70–73): Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: A [knack]
Explanation:
'a knack for' = a natural skill.
VocabularyThe road was so _______ after the rain that the car kept sliding.
Correct Answer: B [slippery]
Explanation:
A car slides on a 'slippery' road.
TenseLet us leave as soon as the rain _______.
Correct Answer: C [stops]
Explanation:
A time clause about the future takes the simple present → 'as soon as the rain stops'.
Phrasal verbWe ran out _______ petrol on the highway.
Correct Answer: D [of]
Explanation:
'run out of' = use up completely.
Directions (Q 74): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice.
Correct Answer: A [Were these roses planted by the gardener?]
Explanation:
Past simple question with a plural subject → Were + subject + V3?
Directions (Q 75): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
Correct Answer: C [Priya asked her brother if he had seen her keys.]
Explanation:
Yes/no question → asked + if; present perfect → past perfect; you → he, my → her.
Directions (Q 76): The sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Select the option that arranges them in a logical sequence.
Q. Yet adults have one advantage that children lack: they can learn deliberately.
R. The vocabulary appears endless, and the grammar full of exceptions.
S. Learning a new language as an adult can seem daunting.
T. With such a plan, steady progress is well within reach.
Correct Answer: A [SRQPT]
Explanation:
Claim → why it seems daunting → 'Yet' (contrast) → how → 'With such a plan'.
Directions (Q 77–78): Select the most appropriate SYNONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: D [huge]
Explanation:
immense = extremely large, huge.
SynonymADVERSARY
Correct Answer: B [opponent]
Explanation:
adversary = an enemy or opponent.
Directions (Q 79–80): Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: A [fake]
Explanation:
genuine = real; opposite = fake.
AntonymDESPAIR
Correct Answer: D [hope]
Explanation:
despair = complete loss of hope; opposite = hope.
Directions (Q 81–82): Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom or phrase.
Correct Answer: C [to be in the same difficult situation as others]
Explanation:
'in the same boat' = facing the same difficulty.
Idiomto put all one's eggs in one basket
Correct Answer: B [to risk everything on a single plan]
Explanation:
'put all one's eggs in one basket' = depend entirely on one plan or investment.
Directions (Q 83–84): Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
Correct Answer: B [gullible]
Explanation:
Answer: gullible. gullible = easily fooled.
One-word substitutionA pupil who stays away from school without permission
Correct Answer: D [truant]
Explanation:
truant = a pupil absent without leave.
Directions (Q 85): Select the correctly spelt word to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: A [hierarchy]
Explanation:
hi-er-ar-chy: 'ie' (not 'ei') and '-archy'.
Directions (Q 86–90): In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each numbered blank.
The first rain of the monsoon has a smell that almost everyone recognises. It (1) _______ when raindrops fall on dry soil and release substances that have (2) _______ up in the ground during the dry months. For farmers, the smell is a (3) _______ of the sowing season; for city children, it is an excuse to run outside. Poets have written about it for centuries, yet few of us stop to (4) _______ why such a simple thing moves us so deeply. Perhaps it is because the smell carries memories of childhood, (5) _______ each shower a small homecoming.
Correct Answer: C [occurs]
Explanation:
A general fact with a singular subject (It) → present simple 'occurs'.
ClozeBlank (2): … when raindrops fall on dry soil and release substances that have (2) _______ up in the ground during the dry months.
Correct Answer: D [built]
Explanation:
Present perfect 'have' + past participle → 'have built up'.
ClozeBlank (3): For farmers, the smell is a (3) _______ of the sowing season; for city children, it is an excuse to run outside.
Correct Answer: A [signal]
Explanation:
The smell tells farmers that sowing time has come → 'signal'.
ClozeBlank (4): Poets have written about it for centuries, yet few of us stop to (4) _______ why such a simple thing moves us so deeply.
Correct Answer: C [wonder]
Explanation:
'stop to' + base form; 'wonder why' = ask oneself why ('wander' = roam).
ClozeBlank (5): Perhaps it is because the smell carries memories of childhood, (5) _______ each shower a small homecoming.
Correct Answer: B [making]
Explanation:
A participle phrase showing the result → 'making each shower …'.
Directions (Q 91–95): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In the final over of the inter-school cricket match, everything depended on one ball. Our team needed two runs to win. Kiran, our best batsman, drove the ball towards the boundary and set off for a second run. The throw came in fast, and the bails flew off just as he dived for the crease.
The umpire that day was Mr Joseph, a mathematics teacher from our own school. Everyone looked at him. He hesitated for a moment, then raised his finger: out. Our team had lost by a single run. Some of the boys muttered that he had betrayed his own school.
The next morning, Kiran went to the staff room. We expected him to complain. Instead, he told Mr Joseph that he had felt his bat touch the ground just after the bails came off, and that the decision had been correct. Mr Joseph smiled and said that the hardest decisions were always the ones that went against one's own side, and that it took courage both to make them and to accept them.
We did not win the trophy that year. But I have never forgotten that the two bravest people on the ground that day were the umpire and the batsman who was given out.
Correct Answer: A [two runs]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Our team needed two runs to win'.
RC – inferenceWhy did some boys criticise Mr Joseph?
Correct Answer: C [They felt he had given a decision against his own school.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'muttered that he had betrayed his own school'.
RC – detailWhat did Kiran tell Mr Joseph the next morning?
Correct Answer: B [that the decision to give him out had been correct]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'the decision had been correct'.
RC – vocabularyThe word 'muttered' suggests that the boys
Correct Answer: D [spoke in low, discontented voices]
Explanation:
They grumbled quietly about the decision – 'mutter' = speak in a low, unhappy voice.
RC – inferenceWhy does the narrator call the umpire and Kiran 'the two bravest people on the ground'?
Correct Answer: B [One made, and the other accepted, an honest decision that went against their own side.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'it took courage both to make them and to accept them'.
Directions (Q 96–100): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
On many rooftops across Indian towns, a quiet change is taking place. Panels that turn sunlight into electricity, once seen as expensive gadgets for the rich, are now being installed on homes, schools and small shops. For households, the attraction is simple: once the panels are in place, sunlight costs nothing, and electricity bills can fall noticeably.
There are wider benefits too. Electricity generated on a rooftop is used close to where it is produced, so less of it is lost in carrying it over long distances. Every unit produced in this way also reduces the need to burn fuels that pollute the air.
The path is not entirely smooth. The initial cost can still be high for many families, and buyers often find it hard to judge which installers are reliable. Panels need regular cleaning to work well, especially in dusty areas. Clear information and dependable after-sales service, therefore, matter as much as the panels themselves.
Correct Answer: A [Once the panels are in place, sunlight costs nothing and bills can fall.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'once the panels are in place, sunlight costs nothing'.
RC – detailAccording to the passage, why is less electricity lost with rooftop panels?
Correct Answer: D [The electricity is used close to where it is produced.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'used close to where it is produced'.
RC – detailWhich difficulty faced by buyers is mentioned in the passage?
Correct Answer: C [judging which installers are reliable]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'buyers often find it hard to judge which installers are reliable'.
RC – vocabularyAs used in the passage, 'the initial cost' is the cost
Correct Answer: B [at the beginning]
Explanation:
The cost of buying and installing the panels comes first – 'initial' = at the beginning.
RC – titleWhich of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
Correct Answer: C [Rooftop Solar: Promise and Problems]
Explanation:
The passage weighs benefits ('wider benefits') against difficulties ('not entirely smooth').
Directions (Q 101–105): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
A message arrives on your phone claiming that a common kitchen spice can cure a serious illness. It has been forwarded many times, and it comes from a relative you trust. Should you pass it on?
Messages like this spread quickly because they play on our emotions. They promise hope, warn of danger or confirm what we already believe, and they often arrive from people we know. The trust we place in the sender is transferred, without much thought, to the message itself.
Checking takes only a few minutes. One can ask who originally wrote the message, whether any reliable source has reported the same thing, and whether the claim sounds too good, or too frightening, to be true. If the answers are unclear, the safest course is simply not to forward it.
Each of us is now, in a small way, a publisher. A single tap can send a message to hundreds of people. With that power comes a responsibility that was once carried only by editors and reporters: the duty to check before we share.
Correct Answer: A [They play on our emotions and often come from people we know.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'they play on our emotions'.
RC – detailWhat, according to the passage, happens to the trust we place in the sender?
Correct Answer: D [It is transferred to the message without much thought.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'The trust we place in the sender is transferred, without much thought, to the message itself'.
RC – NOT mentionedWhich of the following is NOT suggested in the passage as a way of checking a message?
Correct Answer: C [asking the sender to forward it again]
Explanation:
The three checks named are the author, a reliable source and 'too good … to be true'; re-forwarding is not one.
RC – inferenceWhat does the author mean by 'Each of us is now, in a small way, a publisher'?
Correct Answer: B [Anyone can now send a message to a large number of people.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'A single tap can send a message to hundreds of people'.
RC – toneIn advising readers about forwarded messages, the author's tone is
