SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 2 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.

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. The study of coins

(a)Choreography
(b)Numismatics
(c)Cartography
(d)Informatics

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Numismatics is the study and collection of coins, currency and medals, and the word carries its own evidence: it comes from the Latin numisma, a coin.

The stem gives the definition and asks for the single word that names that field, so the root before the ending is what decides the item → option (b).

A person who studies or collects coins is a numismatist.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Choreography — Choreography is the art of composing and arranging the steps of a dance. It names a field, which is why it is on the list, but its subject is movement, not money.
(c)
Cartography — Cartography is the drawing and study of maps and charts. It is the nearest miss because it shares the shape of a scholarly field-name, and nothing else.
(d)
Informatics — Informatics is the study of information processing and computing systems. Coins are objects of material study, not data.

Concept

One-word substitution is a vocabulary item disguised as a definition item, and the four options are usually built to share an ending so that the ending cannot decide anything.

Here every option is a named field of study or practice. What separates them is the root: numis- for coin, choreo- for dance, carto- for map, inform- for information.

So read the root, not the suffix. If you know one root in the set you can often eliminate the rest without knowing them all.

Key facts

Numismatics is the study of coins, currency and medals, and a numismatist is one who studies or collects them.
Choreography is the art of composing and arranging dance.
Cartography is the making and study of maps.
Informatics is the study of information processing and computer systems.

Study next

Other field-of-study words: philately, seismology, demographyForming the practitioner from the field: numismatist, cartographer, choreographerThe -phobia and -mania families, such as claustrophobia and dipsomania

Common traps

Picking Cartography because it looks the most scholarly of the four.
Confusing numismatics with philately, which is the collecting and study of postage stamps.
Reading the study of coins as the study of money in general, which is a different subject.

SSC states the definition in plain words and asks for the single word, with options that share a suffix so the root has to do the work.

Other field-of-study definitions are set at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.12 (demography), 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11 (archaeology) and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.10 (aviation).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.