SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 18 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 10 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 ANTONYM of the word in bold to fill in the blank. The modern work is deliberately ________ (ambiguous).

(a)certain
(b)dubious
(c)vague
(d)puzzling

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The word you must reverse is ambiguous — capable of more than one reading, so nothing about its meaning is settled.

An antonym has to close that opening. Certain does: it means fixed, beyond doubt, admitting a single reading.

Read the filled sentence back — The modern work is deliberately certain — and it becomes the exact reverse of a work left deliberately open. Option (a) is the choice that flips the bracketed word; the remaining three restate it.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
dubious — Dubious means doubtful or of questionable worth. It deepens the uncertainty in ambiguous instead of cancelling it, so it is a near-synonym, not an antonym.
(c)
vague — Vague means imprecise or ill-defined. Like ambiguous it leaves the reader unsure what is meant, so it restates the bracketed word rather than reversing it.
(d)
puzzling — Puzzling means hard to work out — the effect an ambiguous work has on its reader. Same direction of meaning, so it cannot be the opposite.

Concept

In an antonym-in-a-blank item the target word is handed to you and the gap wants its opposite.

Here three of the four options are synonyms of the target and one reverses it. Reading for a word that merely fits the sentence will land you on a synonym, because a synonym fits the sentence too.

So fix the direction before you read the options. Ambiguous = open to two or more readings, so the gap needs a word meaning not open to doubt.

The stem says the word in bold, but the response sheet prints that word in brackets after the blank: (ambiguous). It is the word to reverse, not a second word to insert.

Key facts

Ambiguous means open to more than one interpretation, so its opposite is a word meaning definite or unmistakable.
Dubious, vague and puzzling all sit on the same side of the meaning as ambiguous, which is why so many options look plausible.
Certain also keys an antonym item on 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8, where the underlined word is unsure.

Study next

Antonym items where the target word is printed in brackets inside the sentenceTelling ambiguous, vague and obscure apart, since they overlap without being interchangeableSynonym-heavy option sets, where you fix the direction of meaning before choosing a word

Common traps

Choosing the word that reads most smoothly rather than the one that reverses the bracketed word
Treating deliberately as a negative cue and hunting for a negative-sounding option
Assuming the answer must carry a negative prefix such as un- or in-

This item shape prints the target word in brackets and stocks the options with its near-synonyms, so the work is done before you reach the options.

The same shape is set on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 — She has _____ (witty) remarks about everything, keyed unamusing — and on 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 — Sheila _____ (failed) all her classes, keyed passed.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.