SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 13 of 98

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 6 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.

Parts of a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Select the option that gives their correct logical sequence and forms a meaningful sentence. In November, Lakshman fell (P) / with fever (Q) / seriously ill (R) and pneumonia (S).

(a)P, Q, R, S
(b)P, R, Q, S
(c)R, Q, S, P
(d)P, Q, S, R

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The verb is fell in its linking sense, as in 'fall ill', so an adjective has to come straight after it, not a preposition. That fixes P then R: 'In November, Lakshman fell seriously ill'.

Once the complement is in place the cause can be attached — with fever (Q), and 'and pneumonia' (S) hangs on that same preposition.

The order gives 'In November, Lakshman fell seriously ill with fever and pneumonia', which is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
P, Q, R, S — P, Q, R, S places with fever right after 'fell', producing 'Lakshman fell with fever seriously ill'. The adjective the linking verb needs then arrives three words too late.
(c)
R, Q, S, P — R, Q, S, P opens on the adjective phrase and pushes In November, Lakshman fell to the very end, so the subject and verb follow everything they are supposed to govern.
(d)
P, Q, S, R — P, Q, S, R leaves seriously ill dangling after 'and pneumonia', with no noun for it to describe, and it still produces the ungrammatical 'fell with fever'.

Concept

Parts-jumble items are settled by verb pattern, not by ear.

Fall here is a linking verb in the fixed pattern 'fall + adjective' — fall ill, fall silent, fall asleep. A linking verb needs its complement, so the adjective phrase must come first.

Only after the complement is placed can modifiers attach: 'with fever' says what he fell ill with, and 'and pneumonia' is coordinated inside that same prepositional phrase.

The skeleton is subject, verb, complement, modifier, and the four fragments drop into it in that order.

The item never asks you to judge style. All four options are built from the same four fragments, so the decision rests entirely on which order is grammatical.

Key facts

Fall is a linking verb in fall ill, fall silent and fall asleep, and takes an adjective complement.
A prepositional phrase such as with fever modifies the complement and follows it.
And pneumonia is coordinated inside the phrase with fever, so the two stay adjacent.

Study next

Linking verbs and their complements: be, become, seem, grow, fall, turnWhere a prepositional modifier can and cannot sit inside an English clauseCoordination inside a prepositional phrase

Common traps

Assuming P must be followed by Q because the fragments are printed in that order.
Treating fell as an ordinary action verb, which makes the adjective seriously ill look optional.

SSC prints the ordering item in more than one shape: fragments lettered inside a printed sentence, and free-standing labelled segments. 13 Sep 2024, 16:00 uses the free-standing shape at EC Q.15, and the same 'parts of a sentence in jumbled order' instruction runs at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, EC Q.18.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.