SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 16 of 99

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 option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. Gourav was no good than a foolish person.

(a)no best
(b)not good
(c)no better
(d)not best

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The trigger is the word than left standing in the sentence. 'Than' is the comparison word of the comparative degree, and 'good' is the positive degree, so 'no good than' cannot stand.

The comparative of good is better, which produces the fixed phrase no better than, meaning 'just as bad as'.

'Gourav was no better than a foolish person' says he was as foolish as one — the sense the sentence is reaching for, and the reading option (c) gives.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
no best — No best puts a superlative where 'than' demands a comparative. Superlatives take 'of' or 'in' — the best of the lot, the best in the class — and never 'than'.
(b)
not good — Not good leaves 'good' in the positive degree, so the clash with 'than' is untouched. Swapping 'no' for 'not' changes the negation, not the degree.
(d)
not best — Not best is a superlative again, and it also loses the 'no ... than' idiom. 'Not the best' would need an article and still could not take 'than'.

Concept

Degree and comparison word are locked together in English.

Positive degree takes as ... as — as good as a fool.
Comparative degree takes than — better than a fool.
Superlative degree takes of or in — the best of the lot.

No better than is an idiom sitting on top of that rule. It does not mean 'slightly worse'; it means 'just as bad as'. 'He is no better than a thief' calls the man a thief, which is how a sentence can carry an insult while using the word 'better'.

This is a substitution item, so the replacement has to drop into the sentence exactly as it stands. You may not also insert 'the' or change 'than' to 'as', and that constraint alone removes both superlative options.

Key facts

Than pairs with the comparative degree, as ... as with the positive, and of / in with the superlative.
No better than means 'just as bad as', not 'somewhat worse than'.
The three degrees of 'good' are good, better, best.

Study next

Degrees of comparison and the comparison word each degree takesComparative idioms: no better than, none the wiser, all the moreDouble comparatives to avoid: more better, more easier

Common traps

Reading 'no better than' as faint praise, because 'better' is a favourable-sounding word.
Repairing the negation instead of the degree, which is exactly what option (b) offers.

Substitution items give one underlined stretch and four near-identical replacements, so the difference between them is a single grammatical feature — here the degree of the adjective.

The same degree fault turns up as a spot-the-error item at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.11, where 'as his health is not more good' is the keyed segment.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.