SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the underlined group of words. In Indian mythology, most of the Asuras wish to be never able to die.

(a)Immortal
(b)Invisible
(c)Impervious
(d)Invincible

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The underlined group is 'never able to die', so the substitute has to deny death and nothing else.

Immortal means deathless, not subject to death, which matches the phrase word for word. Option (a) is the one that answers what is underlined.

The Asura setting is scenery. The stem underlines the words about dying, not the words about power, so a word about being unbeatable answers a question that was not asked.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Invisible — Invisible means unable to be seen. It denies visibility, and nothing in the underlined words concerns being seen.
(c)
Impervious — Impervious means not letting anything through, as in impervious to water, and by extension unaffected by criticism. That is resistance, not deathlessness.
(d)
Invincible — Invincible means unable to be conquered or defeated. A warrior can go undefeated in battle and still be mortal, so it answers a different phrase.

Concept

A one-word-substitute item is decided by matching the exact scope of the negation, not the flavour of the sentence.

Each in- word on this list denies a different thing. Immortal denies death, invisible denies sight, invincible denies defeat, impervious denies passage through.

So underline the operative verb inside the phrase, here die, and take the option whose root carries that verb. Mortal comes from Latin mors, death.

Mythology makes Invincible tempting, because Asuras are usually described as unbeatable rather than deathless.

The item is testing the underlined phrase, not the story around it.

Key facts

Immortal comes from Latin mors, death, and so means literally not subject to death.
Invincible comes from Latin vincere, to conquer, and so means unable to be defeated.
Impervious means not allowing passage through, and figuratively unaffected by something.

Study next

One-word substitutes built on the negative prefixes in-, im- and il-Confusable pairs such as immortal against invincible, and illegible against ineligibleRoot families such as mors and mortal, vincere and victory

Common traps

Letting the mythological setting steer you to Invincible when the underlined words are about dying
Treating Impervious as a general word for unbreakable, when it means not letting anything pass through

SSC keys Invincible for the phrase it actually answers: at English Q.18 of this paper, for 'That which cannot be conquered', and at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.18, for 'Incapable of being defeated'.

Reading those two beside this one is the quickest way to keep the pair apart.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.