SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 most appropriate option to fill in the blank. To __________ the ticket, Amith had to visit the travel agency many times.

(a)contract
(b)confirm
(c)conform
(d)convention

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The blank stands after To and before an object, so only a base-form transitive verb can fill it, and the object is a ticket.

You confirm a ticket: you make a provisional booking definite. The rest of the sentence agrees — Amith visits the travel agency repeatedly because the ticket exists but is not yet certain, and confirming is what turns it certain → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
contract — Contract as a verb means to shrink, or to enter into a formal agreement. You may contract with an agency, but you do not contract a ticket.
(c)
conform — Conform takes to and no direct object: you conform to a rule or a standard. It cannot govern the ticket at all, however close it looks to confirm.
(d)
convention — Convention is a noun, meaning a custom or a large meeting. After To only a verb can stand, so this option fails on word class before meaning is even considered.

Concept

This is a confusable-words item wearing a fill-in-the-blank costume. Three options share the con- prefix and a similar shape, and the test is whether you can separate them by grammar and by the company each word keeps.

Two filters settle it. Word class first: convention is a noun, and the slot after To admits only a base-form verb. Then collocation: a ticket is booked, confirmed, cancelled or rescheduled, and of the surviving verbs only confirm takes ticket as its object.

The sentence is already decided by confirm alone, so the detail about many visits to the agency is corroboration rather than evidence you need.

Key facts

Confirm a booking, a ticket or a reservation means to make it definite.
Conform is followed by to, as in conform to the rules.
Convention is a noun only, and the related verb is convene.

Study next

Con- confusables: confirm, conform, conserve, consentNoun and verb pairs where only one fits the slot: convention and convene, provision and provideTravel collocations: book, confirm, cancel and reschedule a ticket

Common traps

Reading conform and confirm as spelling variants of one word
Filling the blank by meaning without first checking whether the option is even a verb

SSC uses the single-blank sentence for vocabulary and for idiom alike. This paper puts an idiom in the same slot at English Q.5 (hold out the olive branch) and runs a five-blank cloze at English Q.21 to Q.25 (all 12 Sep 2024, 16:00).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.