SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 95

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 10 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.

The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error. The windows / violent banged / during the / storm yesterday.

(a)The windows
(b)storm yesterday.
(c)during the
(d)violent banged

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Banged is the verb of the sentence, and a verb is modified by an adverb, never by an adjective. Violent is an adjective, so the segment has to read violently banged.

The adverb question makes it audible: how did the windows bang? Violently.

Run the other three and each is sound — a plural subject, a preposition phrase, and a time word agreeing with the past tense. Segment (d) is where the word class breaks.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The windows — The windows is a plural noun phrase acting as subject, and banged is the same past-tense form for singular and plural. Nothing in the segment can be wrong.
(b)
storm yesterday. — Yesterday is a time adverb in its normal end position, and it agrees with the past tense banged. The segment is correctly formed.
(c)
during the — During is the right preposition for a stretch of time, and during the storm is idiomatic English. The segment carries no error.

Concept

English keeps two word classes apart: an adjective modifies a noun, and an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Most adverbs of manner are the adjective plus -ly.

So a violent storm is right, because storm is a noun. Banged violently is right, because banged is a verb. Violent banged breaks the rule.

The quick test is the question the modifier answers. Which storm? takes an adjective. How did they bang? takes an adverb.

A handful of words are both adjective and adverb without -ly, such as fast, hard and late, which is why the -ly test needs the word-class question behind it rather than a rule about spelling.

Key facts

An adjective modifies a noun, while an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Most English adverbs of manner add -ly to the adjective, so violent becomes violently.
Banged is the past tense of bang and takes one form for both singular and plural subjects.
During is a preposition of time and is followed by a noun phrase, as in during the storm.

Study next

Adjective and adverb pairs where the adverb is irregular: good and well, hard and hardlyPlacement of adverbs of manner, place and time in an English sentenceSegment-based error spotting: check word class before you check meaning

Common traps

Reading violent as attached to windows and letting it pass as an adjective.
Marking storm yesterday as wrong because the time word looks misplaced.
Assuming a plural subject such as the windows needs a different past-tense verb form.

SSC splits a sentence into four segments and keys the one carrying the error, so the fastest route is to name the word class of every modifier as you read.

The identical adjective-for-adverb swap is keyed at 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8, where the faulty segment is bad injured.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.