SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 05 – Section II · Part A · English Language & Comprehension
SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 05 – 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: C [when the thunder woke up him.]
Explanation:
With a pronoun object, the particle comes after the pronoun → 'woke him up'.
Spot the errorHe met / with an accident / while returning home.
Correct Answer: D [No error]
Explanation:
'meet with an accident' is the standard phrase.
Spot the errorYou will / succeed only if / you will work hard.
Correct Answer: C [you will work hard.]
Explanation:
A condition clause about the future takes the simple present → 'if you work hard'.
Spot the errorA pair of shoes / were lying / under the bed.
Correct Answer: B [were lying]
Explanation:
The subject is 'A pair' (singular) → 'was lying'.
Spot the errorShe could not / help to laugh / at his silly joke.
Correct Answer: B [help to laugh]
Explanation:
'cannot help' is followed by the -ing form → 'help laughing'.
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 [who]
Explanation:
For a person who is the subject of the clause use 'who'.
Sentence improvementHe did not hardly notice the change.
Correct Answer: A [hardly noticed]
Explanation:
'hardly' is already negative; a second negative is wrong → 'hardly noticed'.
Sentence improvementShe needs not worry about the result.
Correct Answer: B [need not]
Explanation:
As a modal, 'need' takes no '-s' and is followed by the bare infinitive → 'need not worry'.
Sentence improvementThe coach suggested them to practise every morning before school.
Correct Answer: C [that they should practise]
Explanation:
'suggest' does not take object + to-infinitive → 'suggested that they should practise'.
Directions (Q 70–73): Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: C [irrelevant]
Explanation:
Having nothing to do with the topic → 'irrelevant'.
VocabularyThe doctor said the disease was _______ and could spread through touch.
Correct Answer: A [contagious]
Explanation:
Spreading through contact → 'contagious'.
Word formThe two shops are _______ by a narrow lane.
Correct Answer: D [separated]
Explanation:
Passive 'are separated by' → past participle 'separated'.
VocabularyThe witness _______ his earlier statement when new evidence came to light.
Correct Answer: B [retracted]
Explanation:
'retract' a statement = withdraw it.
Directions (Q 74): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in active voice.
Correct Answer: D [The students were reciting the poem when the guests arrived.]
Explanation:
'was being recited' is past continuous → 'were reciting'.
Directions (Q 75): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in direct speech.
Correct Answer: C [The teacher said to the students, "You must submit your projects by Monday."]
Explanation:
Reverse the changes: told → said to; they → you, their → your; 'must' stays.
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 new employee usually learns them not from manuals but by watching colleagues.
R. That is why many firms now assign such a mentor to every newcomer.
S. A good mentor can shorten the process by explaining what is expected and why.
T. This informal learning can be confusing at first.
Correct Answer: A [PQTSR]
Explanation:
Rules → how they are learnt ('them') → 'This informal learning' → the mentor → 'such a mentor'.
Directions (Q 77–78): Select the most appropriate SYNONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: D [native]
Explanation:
indigenous = originating in a place, native.
SynonymMALEVOLENT
Correct Answer: B [spiteful]
Explanation:
malevolent = wishing harm to others, spiteful.
Directions (Q 79–80): Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: A [goodwill]
Explanation:
animosity = strong dislike; opposite = goodwill.
AntonymTIMID
Correct Answer: C [bold]
Explanation:
timid = lacking courage or confidence; opposite = bold.
Directions (Q 81–82): Select the most appropriate meaning of the given idiom or phrase.
Correct Answer: B [to avoid taking sides in a dispute]
Explanation:
'sit on the fence' = refuse to commit to either side.
Idiomto hang by a thread
Correct Answer: A [to be in a very uncertain or dangerous state]
Explanation:
'hang by a thread' = be in great danger of failing.
Directions (Q 83–84): Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
Correct Answer: C [index]
Explanation:
index = an alphabetical list with page references; a preface comes at the start.
One-word substitutionBelief in only one God
Correct Answer: D [monotheism]
Explanation:
mono (one) + theism (belief in God); polytheism = many gods.
Directions (Q 85): Select the correctly spelt word to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: D [rendezvous]
Explanation:
ren-dez-vous: 'z' in the middle and silent 's' at the end.
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.
For years, Anjali translated technical manuals, work that paid well but left her feeling (1) _______. In her spare time, she began translating the folk tales her grandmother used to tell, tales that had never been written down. The task proved far more (2) _______ than she had imagined: a single phrase could carry a joke, a warning and a piece of local history all at once. She often spent an entire evening on one sentence, (3) _______ it until it sounded right. When a small publisher finally brought out the collection, she was (4) _______ by letters from readers who had heard the same stories as children. The book did not make her rich, but it gave her something the manuals never had: the sense that her work (5) _______.
Correct Answer: B [unfulfilled]
Explanation:
Well-paid but unsatisfying work → 'unfulfilled'.
ClozeBlank (2): The task proved far more (2) _______ than she had imagined: a single phrase could carry a joke, a warning and a piece of local history all at once.
Correct Answer: A [demanding]
Explanation:
After 'far more' an adjective is needed → 'demanding'.
ClozeBlank (3): She often spent an entire evening on one sentence, (3) _______ it until it sounded right.
Correct Answer: C [revising]
Explanation:
A participle phrase describing how she spent the evening → 'revising it'.
ClozeBlank (4): When a small publisher finally brought out the collection, she was (4) _______ by letters from readers who had heard the same stories as children.
Correct Answer: D [overwhelmed]
Explanation:
Passive 'was overwhelmed by letters' → past participle.
ClozeBlank (5): The book did not make her rich, but it gave her something the manuals never had: the sense that her work (5) _______.
Correct Answer: C [mattered]
Explanation:
A finite verb in the past narrative → 'that her work mattered'.
Directions (Q 91–95): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Every evening after her shift at the garment factory, Fatima sat on the steps of her building with a notebook and a pencil. She had left school early to support her family, and she had promised herself that she would finish her education one day. The textbooks she studied from were second-hand, their margins crowded with someone else's notes.
One evening a young man from the floor above, a college student named Vikram, stopped to watch her struggle with an algebra problem. Without a word he sat down and showed her a simpler way to set out the equation. The next evening he came again, and the evening after that. Soon the steps had become an informal classroom, and other workers from the building began to join them.
Fatima passed her examinations two years later. On the day the results came, she found a note in her letter box. It was from Vikram, who had by then moved away. 'I thought I was teaching you,' it read, 'but you taught me why I wanted to become a teacher.'
Correct Answer: B [to support her family]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'She had left school early to support her family'.
RC – detailWhat do we learn about Fatima's textbooks?
Correct Answer: A [They were second-hand, with someone else's notes in the margins.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'The textbooks she studied from were second-hand'.
RC – detailHow did the 'informal classroom' begin?
Correct Answer: C [Vikram stopped to help Fatima with an algebra problem and kept coming back.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'showed her a simpler way to set out the equation'.
RC – vocabularyAs used in the passage, 'an informal classroom' is a classroom that is
Correct Answer: D [not officially organised]
Explanation:
Lessons on the building's steps, without any official arrangement → 'informal'.
RC – inferenceWhat does Vikram's note reveal?
Correct Answer: B [Helping Fatima had shown him what he wanted to do in life.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'you taught me why I wanted to become a teacher'.
Directions (Q 96–100): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
At large celebrations, the end of the meal often brings an uncomfortable sight: plates left half full, and kitchens holding trays of untouched food. When so many people struggle to afford a full meal, such waste troubles a growing number of hosts and caterers.
Some have begun to act. Caterers plan quantities more carefully, guided by the number of guests who have actually confirmed. Hosts serve smaller portions and let guests return for more. Surplus food that has been safely handled is passed on, the same evening, to groups that distribute it to shelters and night workers.
These efforts face practical limits. Cooked food spoils quickly, so it must be collected and delivered within hours. Organisers must make sure that it has been stored properly, or a kind gesture could make people ill. Above all, the change depends on attitudes. As long as an overflowing table is seen as a sign of generosity and status, waste will be hard to reduce.
Correct Answer: A [the number of guests who have actually confirmed]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'guided by the number of guests who have actually confirmed'.
RC – detailWhat happens to surplus food that has been safely handled?
Correct Answer: B [It is passed on to groups that distribute it to shelters and night workers.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'passed on, the same evening, to groups that distribute it to shelters and night workers'.
RC – detailWhy must organisers make sure that the food has been stored properly?
Correct Answer: C [Otherwise the food could make people ill.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'or a kind gesture could make people ill'.
RC – vocabularyAs used in the passage, 'Cooked food spoils quickly' means that cooked food
Correct Answer: A [soon goes bad]
Explanation:
Food that must be delivered within hours 'spoils' – goes bad.
RC – main ideaAccording to the passage, what is the biggest obstacle to reducing such waste?
Correct Answer: D [the attitude that an overflowing table shows generosity and status]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Above all, the change depends on attitudes'.
Directions (Q 101–105): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Wetlands have long had a poor reputation. Marshes and swamps were often seen as wasteland, breeding grounds for mosquitoes that were best drained and built upon. Across the world, large areas of wetland have been filled in to make way for farms, roads and housing.
Scientists now recognise that this view was mistaken. Wetlands act like giant sponges, soaking up floodwater during heavy rain and releasing it slowly in drier months. They filter pollutants from water, provide homes for fish and migratory birds, and store large amounts of carbon in their waterlogged soil.
The cost of losing them is often discovered too late. A city that has built over its wetlands may find that floodwater, with nowhere else to go, now flows into its streets and homes. Restoring a damaged wetland is possible, but it is slow and expensive. Protecting those that remain is far cheaper, and far wiser.
Correct Answer: B [as wasteland that was best drained and built upon]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Marshes and swamps were often seen as wasteland'.
RC – inferenceWhy does the author compare wetlands to 'giant sponges'?
Correct Answer: A [They soak up floodwater and release it slowly.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'soaking up floodwater during heavy rain and releasing it slowly in drier months'.
RC – NOT mentionedWhich of the following is NOT mentioned as a function of wetlands?
Correct Answer: C [supplying timber for building]
Explanation:
Filtering, wildlife homes and carbon storage are listed; timber is not.
RC – detailWhat may happen to a city that has built over its wetlands?
Correct Answer: D [Floodwater may flow into its streets and homes.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'now flows into its streets and homes'.
RC – main ideaWhat does the author conclude?
