SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 99

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 brackets to fill in the blank. Sheila ________ (failed) all her classes.

(a)fizzled
(b)flopped
(c)flunked
(d)passed

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The bracketed word is failed, and the blank has to take its opposite while still fitting 'Sheila ____ all her classes'.

passed is the standard opposite of 'failed' in the examination sense: to pass a class is to meet its standard, to fail it is not to.

It also matches the slot grammatically — 'failed' is past simple, and 'passed' is past simple.

fizzled, flopped and flunked are all failure verbs, so each would repeat the bracketed word instead of reversing it. Option (d) is the one on the other side.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
fizzled — fizzled means to end feebly after a promising start, usually as 'fizzle out'. That is a way of failing, not its opposite.
(b)
flopped — flopped means failed completely, said of films, plays and plans. It sits on the same side of the meaning as the bracketed 'failed'.
(c)
flunked — flunked is informal for failed an examination or a course — the closest synonym of the bracketed word, which is exactly why it is offered.

Concept

This is the antonym item with a frame: SSC prints the word to be reversed in brackets and you supply its opposite in the blank.

Two constraints run at once. The answer must be opposite in meaning, and it must fit the slot — the bracketed 'failed' is past simple, so a present-tense word would fail the second test however good its meaning.

The distractor set is built from one semantic field: three informal verbs for failing against one plain verb for succeeding.

All four options are past-tense verbs beginning with f or p, so sound and shape decide nothing here. Only the meaning does.

Key facts

Pass and fail are the standard antonym pair for examinations and courses.
Flunk is informal for to fail an examination or subject, chiefly North American.
Flop denotes a sudden complete failure, while fizzle denotes a gradual petering out — both are failure, neither is its opposite.

Study next

Informal verbs for failing: flunk, flop, bomb, fizzle outAntonym items where the blank also fixes tense and numberRegister: which informal synonyms are acceptable in formal writing

Common traps

Answering the bracket instead of the blank and marking flunked, the best synonym on offer.
Ignoring tense. The bracketed verb is failed, so the answer has to be past simple as well.
Treating fizzled as neutral because of 'fizzle out'. The phrase still describes something that came to nothing.

SSC puts the word to be reversed in brackets, either inside the sentence as here or in square brackets after it. Also asked 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 (witty becomes unamusing) and 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.9 (sell becomes buy).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.