SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 04 – Section II · Part A · English Language & Comprehension
SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 04 – 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:
'members' is plural, so 'were' and 'their' agree with it.
Spot the errorThe duties of a principal / is to manage / the school well.
Correct Answer: B [is to manage]
Explanation:
The subject is 'The duties' (plural) → 'are to manage'.
Spot the errorHe was / too much tired / to walk any further.
Correct Answer: B [too much tired]
Explanation:
'too' goes directly before the adjective → 'too tired'.
Spot the errorShe has been / working in this firm / since she has graduated.
Correct Answer: C [since she has graduated.]
Explanation:
'since' + a point in the past takes the simple past → 'since she graduated'.
Spot the errorNeither he / nor I / are going to the party.
Correct Answer: C [are going to the party.]
Explanation:
With 'neither … nor' the verb agrees with the nearer subject 'I' → 'am going'.
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: C [As I was walking down the street]
Explanation:
The noise was not walking; the phrase needs its own subject → 'As I was walking down the street'.
Sentence improvementHe would have passed if he would have studied harder.
Correct Answer: B [had studied]
Explanation:
In a past unreal condition the 'if' clause takes the past perfect → 'if he had studied'.
Sentence improvementThe scenery of the hills are breathtaking in winter.
Correct Answer: A [is breathtaking]
Explanation:
'scenery' is uncountable and singular → 'is breathtaking'.
Sentence improvementShe objected to be treated like a child.
Correct Answer: C [being treated]
Explanation:
In 'object to', 'to' is a preposition → '-ing' form: 'being treated'.
Directions (Q 70–73): Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: C [vindicated]
Explanation:
Experiments that confirm a theory prove it right → 'vindicated'.
VocabularyShe has a _______ memory; she can recall conversations from years ago word for word.
Correct Answer: A [prodigious]
Explanation:
An extraordinary memory → 'prodigious'.
VocabularyThe negotiations reached a _______ when neither side was willing to compromise.
Correct Answer: B [deadlock]
Explanation:
No side willing to give way → no progress: 'deadlock'.
ConditionalHad the players trained harder, they _______ the final.
Correct Answer: B [would have won]
Explanation:
A past unreal condition ('Had the players trained') → would have + V3.
Directions (Q 74): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice.
Correct Answer: C [You are requested to switch off the lights when you leave.]
Explanation:
A polite request with 'please' → 'You are requested to …' (present tense kept).
Directions (Q 75): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
Correct Answer: A [She exclaimed that I had a very lovely garden.]
Explanation:
Exclamation → exclaimed that + statement; 'What a lovely' → 'a very lovely'; you → I; have → had.
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. A rumour can travel faster than the truth.
R. This is because a rumour is often more exciting than the facts.
S. Each person who passes it on tends to add a detail or two.
T. By the time it has gone around a town, it may bear little resemblance to what actually happened.
Correct Answer: D [QRSTP]
Explanation:
Claim → 'This is because' → how it grows → 'By the time' → 'therefore' (advice).
Directions (Q 77–78): Select the most appropriate SYNONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: A [fickle]
Explanation:
capricious = given to sudden changes of mood, fickle.
SynonymEXPEDITE
Correct Answer: B [hasten]
Explanation:
expedite = make something happen faster, hasten.
Directions (Q 79–80): Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: D [conventional]
Explanation:
eccentric = unusual in behaviour; opposite = conventional.
AntonymFEASIBLE
Correct Answer: C [impracticable]
Explanation:
feasible = possible to do; opposite = impracticable.
Directions (Q 81–82): Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom or phrase.
Correct Answer: A [to feel resentful, believing one has been treated unfairly]
Explanation:
'have a chip on one's shoulder' = hold a grievance and be easily offended.
Idiomto cut corners
Correct Answer: D [to do something in the easiest or cheapest way, ignoring rules or quality]
Explanation:
'cut corners' = do a job carelessly or cheaply to save time or money.
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 [ineffable]
Explanation:
Answer: ineffable. ineffable = beyond words.
One-word substitutionA person who lends money at an unfairly high rate of interest
Correct Answer: C [usurer]
Explanation:
usurer = one who lends money at excessive interest.
Directions (Q 85): Four words in the sentence are underlined. Select the word that is INCORRECTLY spelt.
Correct Answer: A [concience]
Explanation:
The correct spelling is 'conscience' (con + science).
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.
When the weekly market in our town (1) _______ plastic bags, many vendors feared that they would lose customers. The opposite happened. Shoppers began to bring cloth bags and steel containers, and some even (2) _______ it a point to praise the vendors who wrapped goods in paper or leaves. Within months, the market looked cleaner, and the drains near it no longer (3) _______ during the rains. The change came not from a strict law (4) _______ from a shared sense of pride. As one vendor put it, a clean market is good (5) _______ business.
Correct Answer: D [banned]
Explanation:
A past event in a past narrative → simple past 'banned'.
ClozeBlank (2): Shoppers began to bring cloth bags and steel containers, and some even (2) _______ it a point to praise the vendors who wrapped goods in paper or leaves.
Correct Answer: A [made]
Explanation:
Fixed phrase: 'make it a point to' do something.
ClozeBlank (3): Within months, the market looked cleaner, and the drains near it no longer (3) _______ during the rains.
Correct Answer: C [overflowed]
Explanation:
Past narrative after 'no longer' → simple past 'overflowed'.
ClozeBlank (4): The change came not from a strict law (4) _______ from a shared sense of pride.
Correct Answer: B [but]
Explanation:
'not from … but from …' corrects one cause with another.
ClozeBlank (5): As one vendor put it, a clean market is good (5) _______ business.
Correct Answer: B [for]
Explanation:
'good for business' = helpful to business.
Directions (Q 91–95): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Babu's father was a potter, and from an early age Babu had been expected to follow him. But Babu wanted to be an engineer. He loved taking apart old radios and putting them back together, and his school notebooks were full of drawings of machines. His father, a man of few words, never discussed the matter, and Babu assumed he would object.
One evening, Babu noticed that his father's wheel had begun to wobble, making it hard to shape the pots evenly. While his father was away at the market, Babu took the wheel apart, found that the bearing had worn out, and replaced it with a part from an old bicycle. When his father returned and sat down to work, the wheel spun more smoothly than it had in years.
His father said nothing for a long time. Then he went inside and came back with a small tin box in which he had been saving coins for many years. 'For your college,' he said. 'A boy who can mend a wheel should learn to build bigger ones.' Babu realised that his father's silence had never been disapproval; it had been a kind of waiting.
Correct Answer: D [an engineer]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Babu wanted to be an engineer'.
RC – detailWhat had Babu assumed about his father?
Correct Answer: A [that he would object to Babu's ambition]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Babu assumed he would object'.
RC – detailHow did Babu repair the wheel?
Correct Answer: C [He replaced its worn-out bearing with a part from an old bicycle.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'found that the bearing had worn out, and replaced it with a part from an old bicycle'.
RC – detailWhat was in the small tin box?
Correct Answer: C [coins that his father had been saving for many years]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'a small tin box in which he had been saving coins for many years'.
RC – inferenceWhat did Babu realise at the end?
Correct Answer: A [His father's silence had been a way of waiting, not a sign of disapproval.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'his father's silence had never been disapproval; it had been a kind of waiting'.
Directions (Q 96–100): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Old phones, chargers, batteries and broken appliances pile up in drawers and storerooms in almost every household. When they are finally thrown out, they often end up with informal recyclers who break them apart by hand to recover valuable metals. The work provides a livelihood to many, but it can be dangerous: burning wires to extract copper, for instance, releases toxic fumes, and harmful substances can seep into soil and water.
Electronic waste is, in one sense, a hidden treasure. Discarded devices contain metals such as copper, and even small amounts of gold and silver, that can be recovered and reused. Recovering them safely, however, requires proper equipment and trained workers.
Solutions must therefore address both ends of the problem. Manufacturers can design products that last longer and are easier to repair and dismantle. Consumers can hand over old devices to authorised collection centres instead of selling them to the highest bidder. And informal recyclers, rather than being pushed out, can be trained and equipped to do their work safely, since their skills are a resource in themselves.
Correct Answer: B [informal recyclers who break them apart by hand]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'informal recyclers who break them apart by hand'.
RC – detailWhich danger of informal recycling is mentioned in the passage?
Correct Answer: D [Burning wires to extract copper releases toxic fumes.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'burning wires to extract copper, for instance, releases toxic fumes'.
RC – inferenceWhy does the author call electronic waste 'a hidden treasure'?
Correct Answer: C [It contains metals that can be recovered and reused.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'contain metals such as copper, and even small amounts of gold and silver, that can be recovered and reused'.
RC – detailWhat does the author suggest should be done about informal recyclers?
Correct Answer: B [They should be trained and equipped to work safely.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'can be trained and equipped to do their work safely'.
RC – vocabularyAs used in the passage, 'dismantle' means
Correct Answer: A [take apart]
Explanation:
Products easy to 'dismantle' can be taken apart for repair and recovery of metals.
Directions (Q 101–105): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In many families today, children move to other cities for work, leaving elderly parents to live alone. The arrangement may be practical, but it often brings a problem that is rarely discussed openly: loneliness. An elderly person may have enough money and good medical care and yet go through entire days without a real conversation.
Some communities have begun experimenting with simple remedies. In one approach, college students spend a few hours each week with elderly neighbours, helping them with phones and paperwork and, more importantly, simply talking. In another, older residents run small classes for children in subjects they know well, from cooking to carpentry to local history.
What makes such efforts work is that they treat older people not as a burden to be managed but as people with something to give. The student who teaches an elderly neighbour to make a video call often learns, in return, stories and skills that no textbook contains. Loneliness, it seems, is best answered not by charity but by exchange.
Correct Answer: D [loneliness among elderly people who live alone]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'leaving elderly parents to live alone'.
RC – detailWhat do college students do in the first approach?
Correct Answer: C [spend time with elderly neighbours, helping them and talking with them]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'college students spend a few hours each week with elderly neighbours'.
RC – detailWhat do older residents offer in the second approach?
Correct Answer: D [small classes for children in subjects they know well]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'older residents run small classes for children in subjects they know well'.
RC – inferenceAccording to the author, why do such efforts succeed?
Correct Answer: A [They treat older people as having something to give.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'treat older people not as a burden to be managed but as people with something to give'.
RC – inferenceThe last sentence suggests that loneliness is best answered by
