SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. a large, flat area surrounded by seats used for sports or entertainment

(a)Department
(b)Garden
(c)Senate
(d)Arena

Answer

Why

Correct — D. An arena is a level, open space ringed by tiers of seats and used for sports contests or public entertainment.

The clue has three conditions — flat area, surrounded by seats, used for sports or entertainment — and option (d) is the word that meets all three at once.

The rest satisfy at most one. A garden is flat and open but has no seating and no contest; a senate has members seated but is a body of people, not a ground.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Department — A department is a division of an organisation, such as a government department or a university department. It is an administrative unit, not a physical space with seating.
(b)
Garden — A garden is a plot of ground where flowers, fruit or vegetables are grown. Nothing in the word implies a ring of seats or a sport played on it.
(c)
Senate — A senate is a legislative or governing body, such as an upper house or a university council. Its members sit, but the word names the assembly, not the ground.

Concept

When a clue lists several features, treat it as a checklist rather than reading for the general idea. A word that satisfies two features and fails the third is still wrong.

Here the features are a flat area, a ring of seats and a use for sport or entertainment. Arena carries all three inside its dictionary sense.

The word is Latin harena, sand — the sand spread on the floor of a Roman amphitheatre to soak up blood. The surface named the place, and the place later named any field of contest, as in the political arena.

Stadium and amphitheatre would also answer this clue, but neither is printed. The item is decided among the four words on offer, not against the best word in English.

Key facts

Arena — a flat central space ringed by seating, used for sports or performances.
The word comes from Latin harena, meaning sand, after the sand strewn on amphitheatre floors.
Arena also has a figurative sense — any sphere of activity or contest, as in the political arena.

Study next

Place substitutes: aviary, hangar, orchard, granary, arsenalClues with three conditions, where a partial match is the built-in trapFigurative extensions of literal place words

Common traps

Settling on garden because it is a large flat open area, and ignoring the seating.
Reading senate as a place because a senate meets in one.

Place substitutes recur across shifts.

At 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.2 the key is Aviary for a place where birds are kept, with Zoo, Sanctuary and Hive alongside it.

At 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.18 the key is Hangar for a place to park aeroplanes, printed next to the spelling trap Hanger.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.