SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 08 – Section II · Part A · English Language & Comprehension
SSC CGL Mock – Tier II Paper I Mock Test 08 – 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 [walk to college.]
Explanation:
'prefer … to' compares like with like → 'cycling to walking to college'.
Spot the errorShould you need / any help, / do not hesitate to call me.
Correct Answer: D [No error]
Explanation:
'Should you need' is a correct inverted condition (= If you need).
Spot the errorIt is / I who / is to blame.
Correct Answer: C [is to blame.]
Explanation:
The verb agrees with 'I' → 'I who am to blame'.
Spot the errorShe is / senior to me / and junior than her brother.
Correct Answer: C [and junior than her brother.]
Explanation:
'junior' takes 'to', not 'than' → 'junior to her brother'.
Spot the errorHad he / not intervened, / the quarrel would turn violent.
Correct Answer: C [the quarrel would turn violent.]
Explanation:
A past unreal condition ('Had he not intervened') needs 'would have + V3' → 'would have turned violent'.
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 [had attended]
Explanation:
A wish about the past ('yesterday') takes the past perfect → 'I wish I had attended'.
Sentence improvementThe committee comprises of seven members.
Correct Answer: A [comprises]
Explanation:
'comprise' takes a direct object → 'comprises seven members' (or 'consists of').
Sentence improvementHe was too proud to accept help from anyone.
Correct Answer: D [No improvement]
Explanation:
'too + adjective + to-infinitive' (= so proud that he would not accept).
Sentence improvementLest he should not be caught, the thief hid in the cellar.
Correct Answer: C [Lest he should be caught]
Explanation:
'lest' already means 'for fear that', so it never takes 'not'; it is followed by 'should' + base form.
Directions (Q 70–73): Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: C [until]
Explanation:
Answer: until. 'not … until' = not before.
VocabularySo _______ was the crowd that the police had to close the gates.
Correct Answer: D [unruly]
Explanation:
The police had to close the gates → the crowd was disorderly: 'unruly'.
VocabularyHe is a _______ reader who finishes a book almost every day.
Correct Answer: A [voracious]
Explanation:
Reading eagerly and in great quantity → 'voracious'.
VocabularyHer plan was so _______ that it covered every possible difficulty.
Correct Answer: C [comprehensive]
Explanation:
Covering everything → 'comprehensive'.
Directions (Q 74): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice.
Correct Answer: A [The traffic rules must be obeyed by everyone.]
Explanation:
Modal → must be + V3; the object 'the traffic rules' becomes the subject.
Directions (Q 75): Select the option that expresses the given sentence in indirect speech.
Correct Answer: B [The principal said that if it rained, the sports day would be postponed.]
Explanation:
A real (first) condition is backshifted in both clauses: rains → rained, will → would.
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. Years later, every member agreed that it had been the right decision.
R. After a long discussion, the leader decided that safety mattered more than the summit.
S. Yet on the second morning, a sudden snowstorm forced the climbers back to their camp.
T. Some wanted to wait for the weather to clear, while others argued for abandoning the climb.
Correct Answer: D [PSTRQ]
Explanation:
Plan → 'Yet' the storm → the disagreement → the leader's decision → 'Years later'.
Directions (Q 77–78): Select the most appropriate SYNONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: A [conscientious]
Explanation:
scrupulous = very careful to do what is right; conscientious.
SynonymSURREPTITIOUS
Correct Answer: B [secretive]
Explanation:
surreptitious = done secretly.
Directions (Q 79–80): Select the most appropriate ANTONYM of the given word.
Correct Answer: D [unproductive]
Explanation:
prolific = producing much; opposite = unproductive.
AntonymTREPIDATION
Correct Answer: C [calmness]
Explanation:
trepidation = fear about what may happen; opposite = calmness.
Directions (Q 81–82): Select the most appropriate meaning of the idiom or phrase printed in bold.
Correct Answer: C [expresses support for something without acting on it]
Explanation:
'pay lip service to' = say one supports something without doing anything about it.
Idiom in contextWith only one bus a day, travelling by it was a Hobson's choice.
Correct Answer: D [a situation in which there is no real choice]
Explanation:
'Hobson's choice' = take what is offered or nothing at all.
Directions (Q 83–84): Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words.
Correct Answer: A [inexplicable]
Explanation:
inexplicable = impossible to explain; inexorable = impossible to stop.
One-word substitutionA word or phrase that reads the same backwards as forwards
Correct Answer: B [palindrome]
Explanation:
palindrome, e.g. 'level' or 'madam'; an oxymoron joins contradictory words.
Directions (Q 85): Select the correctly spelt word to fill in the blank.
Correct Answer: C [fluorescent]
Explanation:
flu-o-res-cent: 'fluo' (not 'flou') and '-escent'.
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.
Many people now feel that their phones have taken over their lives. Notifications (1) _______ their attention every few minutes, and hours vanish into endless scrolling. In response, a growing number of users are experimenting with what has been called digital minimalism. The idea is not to (2) _______ technology altogether but to use it deliberately. Those who practise it remove apps that bring them little value, switch off non-essential alerts and set aside periods of the day that are (3) _______ free of screens. They often report that they sleep better and find it easier to concentrate, (4) _______ some admit that the first few days feel strangely empty. The lesson, perhaps, is that attention is a resource worth (5) _______ as carefully as time or money.
Correct Answer: D [claim]
Explanation:
A present-tense verb with plural 'Notifications' → 'claim their attention'.
ClozeBlank (2): The idea is not to (2) _______ technology altogether but to use it deliberately.
Correct Answer: B [abandon]
Explanation:
'not to … altogether but to use it deliberately' → 'abandon' (give up).
ClozeBlank (3): Those who practise it remove apps that bring them little value, switch off non-essential alerts and set aside periods of the day that are (3) _______ free of screens.
Correct Answer: A [entirely]
Explanation:
An adverb modifies the adjective 'free' → 'entirely free'.
ClozeBlank (4): They often report that they sleep better and find it easier to concentrate, (4) _______ some admit that the first few days feel strangely empty.
Correct Answer: C [although]
Explanation:
A contrasting admission → 'although'.
ClozeBlank (5): The lesson, perhaps, is that attention is a resource worth (5) _______ as carefully as time or money.
Correct Answer: B [guarding]
Explanation:
'worth' is followed by the -ing form → 'worth guarding'.
Directions (Q 91–95): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In the first week of term, Ms Kapoor noticed a boy in the last row who never spoke. When she asked him a question, he looked down at his desk until she moved on. His written work, on the other hand, was remarkable: careful, original and full of ideas that his louder classmates never expressed.
Instead of pressing him to speak, Ms Kapoor began to write short comments in the margins of his essays, asking questions she did not ask aloud. Slowly, his answers grew longer, and the margins filled with a quiet conversation. She learned that he stammered and had been laughed at in his previous school, and that he had decided it was safer to say nothing.
Near the end of the year, the school held a debate. Ms Kapoor did not ask the boy to take part, but she asked whether he would write the opening speech for his team. He agreed. When the team's speaker read it aloud, the hall fell silent and then erupted in applause. The boy sat in the audience, unnoticed, smiling. The following year, to everyone's surprise, he volunteered to speak himself.
Correct Answer: A [It was remarkable and full of ideas, though he never spoke in class.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'His written work, on the other hand, was remarkable'.
RC – detailHow did Ms Kapoor communicate with the boy?
Correct Answer: D [through comments and questions in the margins of his essays]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'write short comments in the margins of his essays'.
RC – detailWhy had the boy decided to stay silent?
Correct Answer: D [He stammered and had been laughed at in his previous school.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'he stammered and had been laughed at in his previous school'.
RC – vocabularyThe phrase 'erupted in applause' suggests that the audience
Correct Answer: B [suddenly clapped loudly and enthusiastically]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'the hall fell silent and then erupted in applause'.
RC – inferenceWhat does the boy's choice in the following year suggest?
Correct Answer: A [His confidence had grown enough for him to speak in public.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'he volunteered to speak himself'.
Directions (Q 96–100): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Antibiotics are among the most valuable tools of modern medicine. Infections that once killed or disabled people can now often be cured in days. Yet these medicines are steadily losing their power, and the reason lies largely in the way we use them.
Whenever an antibiotic is used, the bacteria most sensitive to it are killed first, while a few hardier ones may survive. Each unnecessary or careless use gives such survivors another chance to multiply. Over time, strains emerge that the drug can no longer control. Antibiotics are also of no use against illnesses caused by viruses, such as the common cold, so taking them for such complaints adds to the problem without bringing any benefit.
Doctors are therefore urged to prescribe antibiotics only when they are truly needed, and patients to take them exactly as directed. The practice of giving antibiotics to healthy farm animals to make them grow faster is also coming under scrutiny. The challenge is a collective one: each careless use may seem harmless, but together they threaten a resource on which everyone depends.
Correct Answer: C [largely because of the way they are used]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'the reason lies largely in the way we use them'.
RC – detailWhat can happen to the hardier bacteria that survive?
Correct Answer: A [They may multiply until strains emerge that the drug can no longer control.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'gives such survivors another chance to multiply'.
RC – detailWhy is taking antibiotics for a common cold unhelpful?
Correct Answer: D [Antibiotics are of no use against illnesses caused by viruses.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'Antibiotics are also of no use against illnesses caused by viruses'.
RC – detailWhich practice does the passage say is 'coming under scrutiny'?
Correct Answer: C [giving antibiotics to healthy farm animals to make them grow faster]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'giving antibiotics to healthy farm animals to make them grow faster is also coming under scrutiny'.
RC – vocabularyAs used in the passage, 'The challenge is a collective one' means that the challenge is
Correct Answer: B [shared by everyone]
Explanation:
Each person's careless use adds up, and everyone depends on antibiotics – the challenge is shared.
Directions (Q 101–105): Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Not long ago, a quiet hill town or a remote beach could remain a secret known mainly to locals. Today, a single striking photograph shared online can send crowds to a place almost overnight. For local economies, the sudden attention can be a blessing: guesthouses fill, cafés open and young people find work without leaving home.
But the blessing is mixed. Narrow roads choke with traffic, water supplies built for a small population run short, and litter collects on trails that were once clean. Residents may find that rents rise beyond their reach as homes are converted into lodgings for visitors. In the worst cases, the very charm that drew tourists begins to disappear beneath their numbers.
Some destinations have responded by limiting the number of daily visitors, charging fees that fund conservation, or encouraging travellers to come outside the peak season. Such measures are rarely popular at first. Yet they rest on a simple idea: a place can be enjoyed by future visitors only if it survives the present ones. Responsible travel, in this sense, is not a restriction on pleasure but a way of making it last.
Correct Answer: B [a single striking photograph shared online]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'a single striking photograph shared online can send crowds to a place almost overnight'.
RC – detailWhich benefit of sudden tourism does the passage mention?
Correct Answer: C [Young people find work without leaving home.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'young people find work without leaving home'.
RC – detailWhy may residents find that rents rise beyond their reach?
Correct Answer: A [Homes are being converted into lodgings for visitors.]
Explanation:
The passage says: 'as homes are converted into lodgings for visitors'.
RC – NOT mentionedWhich response of crowded destinations is NOT described by the author?
Correct Answer: D [banning photography at popular spots]
Explanation:
Visitor limits, conservation fees and off-season travel are mentioned; banning photography is not.
RC – main ideaWhat does the author mean by calling responsible travel 'a way of making it last'?
