SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 1 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 synonym of the given word. Merit

(a)Fatigue
(b)Residue
(c)Virtue
(d)Oblique

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Merit here is a noun: a good quality, something in a person or a thing that deserves praise.

Virtue, option (c), carries exactly that sense. A plan with its merits and a plan with its virtues are the same plan.

Filter by part of speech before you weigh meaning. Option (d), Oblique, is an adjective — slanting, or indirect in speech — so it cannot be the synonym of a noun whatever it means.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Fatigue — Fatigue is extreme tiredness, a physical state. It touches neither worth nor excellence, and it is here only because it looks formal and ends the way the keyed word does.
(b)
Residue — Residue is what is left after the rest has been used or removed. It names a leftover, not a good quality, so it fails on meaning even though it is a noun.
(d)
Oblique — Oblique is an adjective meaning slanting or indirect. Merit in the stem is a noun, so this option is out on word class before its meaning matters.

Concept

SSC synonym items are settled in two passes.

First, fix the part of speech. Merit works as a noun (worth, a good quality) and as a verb (to deserve). An option that cannot be a noun cannot be its synonym here.

Second, ask which surviving option could replace the word in a real sentence. The book has real merit and the book has real virtue both work. The book has real residue does not.

All four options end in -ue or -que. That is deliberate — the shape of the word gives you nothing, so you cannot shortlist by eye and have to test meaning and word class.

Key facts

Merit as a noun means worth, or a good quality that deserves praise.
Virtue means an admirable quality, and in the plural it means a thing's good points.
Merit is also a verb meaning to deserve, as in a proposal that merits attention.

Study next

Words that work as both noun and verb, such as merit, warrant and profitNouns of worth and excellence: virtue, calibre, qualityTelling residue, remnant and remainder apart

Common traps

Reading merit as the verb, to deserve, when every option offered is a noun
Picking Oblique because it sounds bookish, without checking its word class

SSC gives the bare word with no sentence here and again at English Q.19 of this shift, where Jovial is keyed to Cheerful. Q.4 of this same paper shows the other framing, a word sitting inside a sentence.

Across shifts the same bare frame runs at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14, where Abundant is keyed to Ample.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.