SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 7 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.

Match the points under Column A with those under Column B. Column A → Column B i. Annelida — a. Tapeworm ii. Arthropoda — b. Sea star iii. Echinodermata — c. Ant iv. Platyhelminthes — d. Earthworm

(a)i-a, ii-c, iii-b, iv-d
(b)i-a, ii-b, iii-c, iv-d
(c)i-d, ii-c, iii-b, iv-a
(d)i-b, ii-a, iii-c, iv-d

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The image pairs four phyla in Column A with four animals in Column B. Take them one at a time.

Annelida is segmented worms, so i goes to d, earthworm.
Arthropoda is jointed legs and a chitin exoskeleton, so ii goes to c, ant.
Echinodermata is spiny-skinned marine animals, so iii goes to b, sea star.
Platyhelminthes is flatworms, so iv goes to a, tapeworm.

That reads i-d, ii-c, iii-b, iv-a — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
i-a, ii-c, iii-b, iv-d — This keeps ant and sea star right but swaps the worms, sending Annelida to tapeworm and Platyhelminthes to earthworm. The earthworm's visible rings are segmentation, which is Annelida.
(b)
i-a, ii-b, iii-c, iv-d — This puts Arthropoda with the sea star and Echinodermata with the ant. Jointed legs and a hard exoskeleton belong to the ant, so that pair alone rules the option out.
(d)
i-b, ii-a, iii-c, iv-d — This matches Annelida to the sea star and Arthropoda to the tapeworm. A tapeworm has neither legs nor an exoskeleton, so it cannot be the arthropod.

Concept

The stem is an image. Column A lists Annelida, Arthropoda, Echinodermata and Platyhelminthes, and Column B lists tapeworm, sea star, ant and earthworm.

Each phylum is defined by one body feature you can see. Annelida means segmented, ringed bodies. Arthropoda means jointed appendages with a chitinous exoskeleton, and it is the largest animal phylum.

Echinodermata means a spiny skin and a water vascular system with tube feet, all marine. Platyhelminthes means flattened, acoelomate bodies, many of them parasitic.

Match-the-column items are settled by the pair you are surest of. Fix ant as the arthropod and earthworm as the annelid, and one arrangement is left standing.

Key facts

Earthworm belongs to Annelida, the phylum of segmented worms.
Ant belongs to Arthropoda, the phylum with jointed appendages and a chitinous exoskeleton.
Sea star belongs to Echinodermata, marine animals with a water vascular system and tube feet.
Tapeworm belongs to Platyhelminthes, the flatworms, and lives as an endoparasite.

Study next

Animal kingdom classification from Porifera to Chordata with one standard example per phylumDiagnostic features across phyla: symmetry, germ layers and the coelomCommon parasites and their phyla, including tapeworm, roundworm and liver fluke

Common traps

Reading the earthworm's rings as skin markings rather than true segmentation.
Treating the sea star as a fish because of the name, when it is an echinoderm.
Settling on ii-c, the ant as the arthropod, and stopping there — options (a) and (c) both carry that pair, so the annelid is what decides it.

Phylum-to-example is asked both as a match-the-columns image and as a one-liner. Compare 19 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.6, which asks for an example of Phylum Arthropoda and keys the butterfly against Pila, Nereis and Hirudinaria.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.