SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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 synonym for the underlined word in the given sentence. One of Ram’s leisure activities is tennis.

(a)Languish
(b)Main
(c)Recreation
(d)Lead

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The underlined word is leisure — time free from work, and by extension what fills it.

The slot decides half the item. Leisure sits in front of a noun (leisure activities), so its replacement must be a noun too. Languish is a verb, and Main here works only as an adjective.

That leaves Recreation and Lead, and only recreation — refreshment through play, sport or amusement — means what leisure means. Option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Languish — Languish is a verb meaning to grow weak, to lose vitality, or to be left neglected. It names a decline, which is the opposite of an activity chosen for enjoyment.
(b)
Main — Main means chief or principal. Slotted in, it would turn the line into a claim about which of Ram's activities matters most, and the sentence makes no such claim.
(d)
Lead — Lead as a noun means a first position, a clue or a leash. None of those is a way of spending free time, so it cannot stand in for leisure here.

Concept

A synonym item is a substitution test, not a word-association game. Put each option back into the printed sentence and keep the one that leaves the meaning untouched.

Leisure is time when you are under no obligation to work, and by extension the pursuits that fill it. Recreation is the same idea seen from the activity side.

Both words describe unhurried, non-obligatory time, and that overlap is the relation the question is testing.

Leisure and recreation are not interchangeable everywhere — leisure is the time, recreation is what you do in it.

Where no closer word is offered, that overlap is enough, and recreation is the option that touches the sense at all.

Key facts

Leisure means time free from work or duty, and by extension how that time is spent.
Recreation means activity undertaken for enjoyment or refreshment away from work.
Languish is a verb: to weaken, to lose vigour, or to be left in an unwanted state.

Study next

Substitution testing: putting each option back into the printed sentenceVocabulary of free time: leisure, respite, recreation, pastimeWord families that shift part of speech: languish, languor, languid

Common traps

Picking Main because "one of Ram's main activities is tennis" is also a grammatical sentence.
Treating Languish as a noun because the option list gives no part of speech.
Answering from the topic of the sentence, tennis, instead of from the underlined word.

SSC prints the synonym inside a sentence, so the slot narrows the field before meaning does.

The same format runs at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.11 and at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.7 (decency, keyed Courtesy).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.