SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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 homophone to fill in the blank. The ____________ was decorated with candles and chocolates everywhere.

(a)flor
(b)floor
(c)flour
(d)flower

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The blank is the subject of was decorated, so it has to name something that can be covered or arranged — a place or a surface.

A floor is exactly that, and floors are strewn with candles, flowers and rangoli at festivals, which is the picture the sentence draws.

None of the other spellings names a surface — one is a wine term, one is a powder and one is a bloom. Option (b) is the reading the sentence forces.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
flor — flor is a specialist wine term — the film of yeast that forms on sherry as it matures. It names no room and no surface, so there is nothing here for the candles to be spread over.
(c)
flour — flour is finely ground grain used for baking. You knead it or bake with it, and it is not a thing that gets candles set out on it.
(d)
flower — flower is the bloom of a plant. A flower can be part of a decoration, but the blank needs the thing being decorated, not the material doing the decorating.

Concept

A homophone item is a comprehension item wearing a spelling costume. The options sound alike, so the sound decides nothing and the sentence decides everything.

Read the role the blank plays first. Here it is the subject of a passive verb, so the blank must be something that can undergo decoration — that rules out a powder and a bloom before you weigh their meanings at all.

Then read the sense. Candles and chocolates arranged everywhere describes a spread over an area, which is what a floor gives you.

Strictly, flour and flower are the true homophones in this set. floor is a near-homophone that SSC groups with them, and flor is a technical wine word almost no candidate will have met — so answer from the sentence rather than from how exactly the four words rhyme.

Key facts

floor — the lower surface of a room, the thing walked on and, at festivals, decorated.
flour and flower are pronounced alike in most accents, which is why they are paired in the exam.
flor is a real English word but a specialist one — the film of yeast on maturing sherry — and it names nothing that could be decorated.

Study next

Homophone sets SSC recycles, such as heal and heel, rode and roadNear-homophones separated by one vowel, such as stationary and stationeryDeciding a blank from the grammatical role it plays rather than from meaning alone

Common traps

Choosing flower because candles and chocolates suggest a celebration.
Assuming the least familiar spelling must be the intended answer.

The floor-flour family comes back with a different key.

At 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.19 the options are flora, floor, flour and flavour, and the key is flour, because that sentence is about kneading.

Homophone blanks also run at 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.19 (heal, not heel) and 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2 (rode, not road).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.