SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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 meaning of the underlined idiom. All his friends admired him because he was a straight shooter.

(a)A thoroughly upright straightforward person
(b)Miserly and pessimistic individual
(c)Complicated and confusing person
(d)Excellent shooter

Answer

Why

Correct — A. A straight shooter is an honest, direct person who says plainly what they think and deals fairly, which is what option (a) states.

The frame sentence confirms the direction: his friends admired him for it. Admiration here attaches to a trait of character, and the idiom names a trait of character, not a skill with a weapon.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Miserly and pessimistic individual — Miserly and pessimistic names stinginess and gloom. Neither sits in the idiom, and neither is what friends are described as admiring.
(c)
Complicated and confusing person — Complicated and confusing is the reverse of straight, which in this idiom means direct, plain and without evasion.
(d)
Excellent shooter — Excellent shooter is the literal reading of the words. Nothing in the sentence mentions guns, targets or sport, and an idiom is not the sum of its parts.

Concept

An idiom means something its words do not add up to, so the literal reading is the one to distrust — and here it is printed for you as option (d).

Straight shooter is informal and belongs to a family of straight expressions about honesty — straight talk, a straight answer, straight from the shoulder. The shared sense is directness without evasion.

Read the frame sentence before choosing. Admired sets a positive tone, which removes the two negative options before their meanings are weighed at all.

The keyed wording, a thoroughly upright straightforward person, is a little stronger than the everyday force of the idiom, but it is the wording that points at honesty and the others do not.

Key facts

Straight shooter — an honest, straightforward person who deals fairly with others.
The straight family of idioms all point at directness: straight talk, a straight answer, straight from the shoulder.
The literal reading of the words is the standard distractor in idiom questions.

Study next

Idioms built on the word straightIdioms of honesty and concealment, such as above board and to keep your cards close to your chestUsing the tone of the frame sentence to eliminate options

Common traps

Taking shooter literally and choosing the marksman option.
Ignoring admired, which fixes the tone of the sentence as positive.

The frame sentence usually carries the clue.

At 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 kept her cards close to her chest is keyed as kept her plans and thoughts hidden, and at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5 a fish out of water is keyed as Uncomfortable.

English Q.18 of this 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper runs the same task on once in a blue moon.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.