SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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.

In the following sentence, four words are underlined out of which one word is misspelt. Identify the INCORRECTLY spelt word. I took out a water tumbler(A) for a drink, but found the water in the metal container (B) had frozen so I couldn't quanch (C) my thirst. I ate some biscuits and offered (D) some to Hillary.

(a)A
(b)B
(c)C
(d)D

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The word marked (C) is quanch, and the spelling is quench — to satisfy thirst or put an end to it.

The stem vowel is e, not a, in every form: quench, quenched, quenching, unquenchable. No ordinary English word is spelt q-u-a-n-c-h.

The remaining underlined words — tumbler, container, offered — are all spelt correctly as they stand, so option (c) is the answer.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
A — tumbler is correct as printed — a flat-bottomed drinking glass with no handle or stem.
(b)
B — container is correct as printed — contain plus -er, with no letter doubled, added or dropped.
(d)
D — offered is correct as printed — offer keeps a single r before -ed because the stress falls on the first syllable.

Concept

Spot-the-misspelling items reward a habit rather than vocabulary: read each underlined word letter by letter and ask whether you have seen that exact string in print.

Quench is the whole item here. Its stem vowel is e in every form, and the sentence supplies the meaning — thirst — so the intended word is not in doubt.

The other underlined words are common and unaltered, so the eye should stop on the one that looks wrong and then confirm it, instead of comparing all four against each other.

Your answer is the label (A) to (D), not the word, so transcribe the label carefully once you have found the error.

Key facts

Quench means to satisfy a thirst or to extinguish a fire, and it keeps its e throughout: quenched, quenching, unquenchable.
Offer does not double its r before -ed because the stress falls on the first syllable, unlike refer, which gives referred.
A tumbler is a flat-bottomed drinking glass without a handle or a stem.

Study next

Consonant doubling before -ed and -ing, governed by where the stress fallsFrequently misspelt stems: separate, definite, privilege, maintenanceThe -er and -or agent endings: container, adviser, supervisor

Common traps

Hunting for a difficult word and skimming past quanch because the sentence still reads fluently.
Marking container wrong on a guess that it needs a double t or an -or ending.

SSC underlines four words in one sentence and labels them (A) to (D), so the answer you mark is a label.

The same format runs at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.19 and 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.