SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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 synonym of the underlined word. She was overstrung before her dance performance.

(a)Placid
(b)Calm
(c)Cheerful
(d)Nervous

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Overstrung, used of a person, means strung too tightly — in a state of nervous tension, close to highly strung.

The sentence supplies the setting: before her dance performance. Tension before going on stage is exactly what the word reports.

Nervous names that state in plain English, and it is the only option pointing in the same direction as the word → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Placid — Placid means calm and untroubled. That is the opposite end of the same scale, and a synonym item will often plant an antonym to catch a half-remembered word.
(b)
Calm — Calm is the plain-English opposite of overstrung. It fits the sentence grammatically, which is precisely why the frame alone cannot decide this item.
(c)
Cheerful — Cheerful means in good spirits. A person can be cheerful and tense at the same time, so it names a mood rather than the tension overstrung reports.

Concept

Overstrung comes from the image of a string pulled too tight — on a violin, on a bow. Applied to a person it means over-tense, at the point where the nerves show.

So the axis is tension, and the only question is which option sits at the tense end. Two of them (placid, calm) sit at the relaxed end, and one (cheerful) is on a different axis altogether.

The sentence's setting confirms the reading but does not decide it, because a dancer could just as grammatically be described as calm or cheerful before going on.

Overstrung carries a second, technical sense: a piano is overstrung when its strings run in overlapping oblique tiers. Nothing in this sentence points that way, and no option offers it.

Key facts

Overstrung, used of a person, means in a state of nervous tension, close to highly strung.
Placid means calm and untroubled, which makes it an antonym of overstrung rather than a synonym.
A piano is described as overstrung when its strings are arranged in overlapping oblique rows.

Study next

Synonyms on the tension axis, such as edgy, jittery and apprehensiveWords whose literal sense, here a tightened string, explains the figurative oneSpotting the planted antonym inside a synonym item

Common traps

Reading over- as a negating prefix and choosing calm
Letting the pleasant setting of a dance performance pull you towards cheerful
Deciding on the sentence frame alone when three options fit it grammatically

SSC sets the underlined-word synonym steadily — deplorable at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.1 and mesmerised at 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.4.

The bare-word version runs inside this same 11 Sep 2024, 09:00 sitting at English Q.13 (FATIGUE, keyed to tiredness) and Q.15 (Adversity, keyed to misfortune), and both of those carry a planted antonym among the options as well.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.