SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 5 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 correct option to form a meaningful sentence. (a) I / (b) that / (c) the chef / (d) to work / (e) in / (f) the new / (g) heard / (h) restaurant / (i) is going / (j) across the road.

(a)a, b, d, c, g, e, f, h, i, j
(b)a, c, g, b, h, i, f, e, d, j
(c)a, b, d, c, e, f, h, g, i, j
(d)a, g, b, c, i, d, e, f, h, j

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The stem is printed as an image strip: ten labelled fragments, (a) I, (b) that, (c) the chef, (d) to work, (e) in, (f) the new, (g) heard, (h) restaurant, (i) is going, (j) across the road.

The order a, g, b, c, i, d, e, f, h, j reads: I heard that the chef is going to work in the new restaurant across the road.

Heard is a reporting verb, so it takes a that-clause, and that clause needs its own subject and verb — the chef is going supplies both → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
a, b, d, c, g, e, f, h, i, j — Opens I that, so the subject I is handed a subordinator instead of a verb, and heard ends up buried after the chef with no clause left to introduce.
(b)
a, c, g, b, h, i, f, e, d, j — Stacks I the chef at the front, two subjects in a row for a single verb, so the sentence is ungrammatical from its second fragment onwards.
(c)
a, b, d, c, e, f, h, g, i, j — Places heard and is going side by side near the end, two finite verbs with no linker between them, and leaves I without a verb of its own.

Concept

This is a reported-speech frame in disguise. Heard takes a that-clause, and the clause must be a complete sentence in itself.

Work outwards from that frame. I heard that has to open the string, because I needs a verb and heard is the finite past verb that fits it.

Inside the clause, the chef is the subject and is going to work the predicate, with in the new restaurant and across the road attaching afterwards as place phrases.

The stem here is an image rather than text: the fragments and their letters are printed as a strip above the options.

If the image does not load, the labels are (a) I, (b) that, (c) the chef, (d) to work, (e) in, (f) the new, (g) heard, (h) restaurant, (i) is going, (j) across the road.

Key facts

A that-clause after a reporting verb such as heard must carry its own subject and finite verb.
The sentence has two finite verbs, heard and is going, joined by the single linker that.
Place phrases like in the new restaurant and across the road come after the verb phrase, not between subject and verb.

Study next

That-clauses after reporting verbs such as heard, said and believeOrdering place phrases at the end of a clauseThe going to construction used for a planned future

Common traps

Building the sentence around the chef as the main subject and leaving I with no verb.
Attaching across the road to work rather than to restaurant, which changes what is across the road.

The same fragment-ordering task is set at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.7, Q.14 and Q.19, and at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.7.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.