SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 18 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.

Parts of the following sentence have been underlined and given as options. Select the option that contains an error. The supermarket is open from 10 a.m. still 10 p.m.

(a)open
(b)from 10 a.m.
(c)The supermarket
(d)still 10 p.m.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. A stretch of time needs a matched pair of markers: from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m., or from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Segment (d) supplies still, an adverb meaning 'even now, up to this moment'. An adverb cannot introduce the end point of a range.

Change one letter — still to till — and the sentence is sound. The faulty part is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
open — open is a predicate adjective after 'is', the ordinary way to say a shop is trading. Nothing in the segment needs changing.
(b)
from 10 a.m. — from 10 a.m. is the correct half of the pair. 'From' marks the start of a period, and the time itself is punctuated the way the paper writes it.
(c)
The supermarket — The supermarket is a singular subject with the definite article, and it agrees with the singular verb 'is'. No error lives here.

Concept

This item tests paired time markers. English builds a span with two matched words: from … to, from … till, from … until, between … and.

Once 'from' opens the span, the closing word must be a preposition that can take '10 p.m.' as its object. 'Till' and 'until' both do that job.

'Still' cannot. It is an adverb of continuation — 'the shop is still open' — and it takes no object at all. The whole question turns on that one-letter difference.

The error is planted as a near-miss spelling, not as a grammar mistake you can hear. Read the sentence quickly and 'still' passes for 'till', which is why SSC uses this pair.

Key facts

A period of time is written 'from X to Y' or 'from X till Y'.
Till and until are interchangeable prepositions marking the end of a period.
Still is an adverb meaning 'even now' and cannot take an object.
Between pairs with and, never with to, in the same construction.

Study next

Paired constructions: from/to, between/and, either/or, neither/norTill, until, by and before as end-point markersPrepositions of time: at, on, in with clock times and dates

Common traps

Hearing 'still' as 'till' and marking the sentence correct.
Assuming the error must be in the verb, and choosing the segment with 'open'.

SSC's error-spotting items usually hide one swapped word inside a fixed phrase rather than a broken tense. Check the set phrases first.

The same format runs again in this shift at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.19, where the broken segment carries a pronoun instead of a preposition.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.