SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 16 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.

Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined word in the given sentence. Our legal system must frame proper legal rules for juvenile criminals.

(a)young
(b)dotage
(c)senile
(d)old

Answer

Why

Correct — A. In "legal rules for juvenile criminals", juvenile means below the age at which the law treats a person as an adult — that is, young.

Substitute and the sentence still says what it said: proper legal rules for young criminals.

Juvenile also carries a dismissive sense (juvenile behaviour, meaning childish), but this sentence is about a legal category of offender, so the age sense is the one in play. That gives option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
dotage — Dotage is the period of feeble old age, and it is a noun rather than an adjective. Slotted in it gives dotage criminals, which fails on both meaning and word class.
(c)
senile — Senile describes the mental decline of old age. It is the far end of life from juvenile, so it reverses the sentence instead of substituting for it.
(d)
old — Old is the direct opposite of juvenile in the age sense. Juvenile justice exists precisely because the offender is below adult age.

Concept

A substitution item asks for a word that can stand in the same slot with the same meaning, so sense and word class both have to match.

Juvenile is an adjective meaning young, and in legal writing it means below the age of adulthood — the sense behind terms such as juvenile justice and juvenile offender.

Three of the four options here point at old age, so once you know the headword the elimination is instant. If you do not, the -ile ending makes juvenile feel technical and senile feels like its natural partner.

Juvenile is also a noun in legal English, meaning a young person below the age of majority. The underlined word here modifies criminals, so the adjective reading is the one the slot allows.

Key facts

Juvenile is an adjective meaning young, or below the legal age of adulthood.
Dotage is a noun meaning the period of weak and childish old age.
Senile is an adjective describing mental deterioration associated with old age.
Juvenile also has a critical sense meaning childishly immature, as in juvenile humour.

Study next

Age vocabulary: juvenile, adolescent, minor, dotage, senileMatching word class as well as meaning when substituting a wordWords with a neutral sense and a critical sense: juvenile, childish, simple

Common traps

Choosing senile or dotage because they sound like technical age words.
Putting a noun into an adjective slot, which is what dotage would do.
Rejecting young as too plain and hunting for a more formal-looking option.

SSC's substitute-the-underlined-word items give a slightly formal word inside a sentence and ask for a plainer equivalent that fits the slot.

The same shape appears at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.8 (intense keyed as powerful) and at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.8 (Verity keyed as Truth).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.