SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. To tell others secret information only for enjoyment is not a good practice.

(a)spill the words
(b)spill the cat
(c)spill the beans
(d)spill the onions

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The segment replaced is the plain phrase 'tell others secret information', so the substitute must be an idiom meaning exactly that: disclose what was meant to stay private.

Spill the beans is that idiom, and it fits the frame — 'To spill the beans only for enjoyment is not a good practice.'

Idioms are fixed expressions: the noun cannot be swapped for a synonym and still carry the meaning. Option (c) is the only one of the four that is real English.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
spill the words — Not an idiom — a literal paraphrase wearing an idiom's shape. The expression fixes its noun as beans, and a fixed expression does not accept a substitute.
(b)
spill the cat — A blend of two idioms: spill the beans and let the cat out of the bag, which does mean to reveal a secret. Half of one plus half of the other is not English.
(d)
spill the onions — Onions belongs to no idiom of disclosure. The word is chosen only because it sits in the same food shelf as beans and reads plausibly at speed.

Concept

An idiom's meaning does not come from its words, so its words cannot be edited. Spill the beans means to reveal secret information, but 'spill the pulses' means nothing at all.

That is why three of the four options here are near-misses on one word: the item tests whether you hold the fixed form, not whether you can guess the sense.

English keeps two common idioms for this act — spill the beans and let the cat out of the bag — and SSC likes to build a distractor by crossing them.

The response sheet does not preserve the underlining, but the options settle it. All four are 'spill the …', so the segment being replaced is the plain phrase that names the act of disclosure.

Key facts

Spill the beans means to reveal information that was meant to be kept secret.
Let the cat out of the bag carries the same meaning and is the source of the 'spill the cat' distractor.
An idiom is a fixed expression, so replacing a content word with a synonym destroys the meaning.

Study next

Idioms of secrecy and disclosure: let the cat out of the bag, keep it under wrapsIdioms built on food words: a piece of cake, in a nutshell, bring home the baconSubstitution items where the underlined segment is plain prose and every option is an idiom

Common traps

Choosing 'spill the cat' because the cat idiom is the one you remember.
Testing the options for grammatical fit, which all four pass, instead of for existence.
Reading the sentence for a topic clue when the item only asks which idiom is real.

SSC prints idioms both as a bare phrase to be defined and as a plain phrase inside a sentence to be replaced.

The first framing appears in this same shift — also 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.10, which asks for the meaning of care a hang.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.