SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Select the option that arranges the parts in the correct sequence to form a meaningful sentence. (P) kindness and empathy (Q) in a world that can be (O) bring light and positivity (R) harsh and challenging

(a)ROQP
(b)QROP
(c)QRPO
(d)PORQ

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Join the parts by their edges rather than by their sense.

Q ends on can be, a linking verb left hanging, so the adjectives of R must follow it: in a world that can be harsh and challenging.

That clause has no subject of its own, so the main clause comes after it. P supplies the subject kindness and empathy and O supplies its verb, bring light and positivity.

Q + R + P + O = QRPO, option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
ROQP — ROQP opens with the bare adjectives harsh and challenging, which have no noun to describe, and it ends on can be with nothing to complete it.
(b)
QROP — QROP builds the opening clause correctly but then places the verb phrase bring light and positivity ahead of its own subject, leaving kindness and empathy stranded at the end.
(d)
PORQ — PORQ gets the main clause right and then tacks the two remaining parts on backwards, closing the sentence on can be with nothing following it.

Concept

Parts-jumble items are solved by matching edges, not by guessing the writer's intention.

Find a part that ends in an incomplete structure — a preposition, an article, a linking verb — and find the part that completes it. Q ends can be, and only R offers adjectives to complete it.

Then ask which part can legally start a sentence. A subordinate opener beginning in a world that can, and so can a subject noun phrase, so test both and keep the order in which every verb has a subject.

This paper labels the parts P, Q, O and R rather than P, Q, R, S. Map the letters onto the fragments before you sequence anything, or a correct arrangement will be entered as the wrong option.

Key facts

The finished sentence reads: In a world that can be harsh and challenging, kindness and empathy bring light and positivity.
A part ending in a linking verb such as can be must be followed by its complement.
bring is the plural verb form, which fits the compound subject kindness and empathy.

Study next

Edge-matching in parts-jumbles: dangling articles, prepositions and auxiliariesSentence-sequencing items, where four whole sentences are orderedTelling the main clause from the subordinate opener in a long sentence

Common traps

Taking an order that reads acceptably aloud but leaves a verb without a subject
Mistaking the label O for S and mapping the fragments onto the wrong letters

SSC runs the parts-jumble and the whole-sentence jumble as separate items in the same paper: this shift has the sentence version at English Q.2. The 11 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper uses this identical instruction wording at English Q.6, where the answer is ROQP.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.