SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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.

The following sentence has been divided into four segments. Identify the segment that contains an error. Mr. Surya / have no interior / motive in offering / you support.

(a)you support.
(b)Mr. Surya
(c)have no interior
(d)motive in offering

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The subject is Mr. Surya, one person, so the present-tense verb must be has, not have. Segment (c) reads have no interior, and the agreement error is there.

The same segment carries a second fault. The fixed phrase is an ulterior motive — a reason kept hidden behind the stated one — while interior means inner or inside.

Corrected, the sentence reads: Mr. Surya has no ulterior motive in offering you support. Option (c) is the segment at fault.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
you support. — You support is correct. Offer takes two objects — offer someone something — so offering you support needs no preposition between them.
(b)
Mr. Surya — Mr. Surya is correct as printed. The subject itself is fine, and it is the verb that fails to agree with it.
(d)
motive in offering — Motive in offering is correct. A preposition is followed by the -ing form, so in offering is the shape English expects.

Concept

Error-spotting items are read one segment at a time, and the first thing to test is subject-verb agreement.

A third-person singular subject takes the -s form in the present tense, so Mr. Surya has. Have belongs with I, we, you and plural subjects.

The segment also tests vocabulary. Ulterior means kept back behind what is openly stated, and it is the adjective the phrase ulterior motive requires. Interior is a word about the inside of a thing, and interior motive is a malapropism.

Both faults sit inside segment (c), so the agreement error alone settles the answer. A candidate who never noticed interior standing in for ulterior still marks the same segment.

Key facts

A third-person singular subject takes has in the present tense.
An ulterior motive is a hidden reason lying behind a stated one.
Interior means inner or situated within, and carries no sense of concealment.
Offer can take two objects, as in offer you support.

Study next

Subject-verb agreement with titled singular subjects and with collective nounsConfusable adjective pairs: ulterior and interior, eminent and imminentVerbs that take two objects: offer, give, lend, promise

Common traps

Reading interior as a mere spelling slip and hunting for the error in another segment
Marking motive in offering because the phrase sounds heavy

SSC splits the sentence with slashes and asks only which slice is wrong, so one segment can hold more than one fault and the answer is still a single letter.

The same format runs at English Q.10 of this 13 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper, where will been working fails as a verb form.

Related PYQs

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