SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 25 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.

In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Rory Cooper was a top aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the up-and-coming Virginia Republican who lost a 2014 House primary. He was also a prominent Never Trumper, openly (1)______________ how awful he found the 45th president. The cause Cooper has (2)______________ himself to for the past year, though, is closer to home. He is, as he puts it in his Twitter bio, ‘Apparently Mr. Open the Schools’. A father of a fifth grader, a second grader and a kindergartner, Cooper is (3) ___________ because the public schools in Fairfax, Virginia, where he lives, have not reopened. Fairfax, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, is one of the school districts that has moved (4) ___________ toward in-person learning, and it is still not close: only in the past few weeks have students started to return to classrooms, and only about half of those eligible have opted to go back, for an (5) ________________ of two days a week.

Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank no. 5.

(a)average
(b)understanding
(c)ideal
(d)amount

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The blank heads the phrase 'for an ___ of two days a week', and what follows it is a rate spread across a group of students, not a fixed timetable for any one of them.

average is the noun English uses for a figure of that kind — an average of two days a week. It also matches the sentence's logic: about half of those eligible have returned, and their attendance is being summarised rather than specified.

The article gives nothing away here. Average, understanding, ideal and amount all begin with a vowel sound, so 'an' fits every option.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
understanding — understanding as a noun means an informal agreement, or a grasp of something. It would report a deal that had been struck about attendance, which the passage never mentions.
(c)
ideal — ideal names a standard someone aims at. The sentence is reporting what actually happens, and 'it is still not close' rules out any reading of two days as the target.
(d)
amount — amount goes with uncountable quantities — an amount of money, of water, of time. Days are countable, so English takes number, and 'an amount of two days' is wrong.

Concept

Two things settle a quantity-noun blank. First, countable or uncountable: number goes with countable nouns, as in a number of days, while amount goes with uncountable ones, as in an amount of time. Days are countable, so amount fails on grammar alone.

Second, what the figure is doing in the sentence. 'Two days a week' spread over a body of students is a rate, and the noun for a rate summarised across a group is average. Understanding and ideal name an agreement and an aspiration, neither of which the passage reports.

Where a blank preceded by 'an' has a consonant-initial option, the article alone eliminates it. That shortcut is unavailable here, because all four options open with a vowel sound.

Key facts

An average of two days a week states a rate across a group, not a fixed timetable for each student.
Amount goes with uncountable nouns and number with countable ones, so days take number.
As a noun, an ideal is a standard aimed at rather than a figure recorded.
As a noun, an understanding is an informal agreement between people, as in 'they reached an understanding'.

Study next

Amount, number, quantity and figure, and which nouns each one takesNoun blanks where every option shares an article, so the phrase after 'of' decidesWays English states rates: an average of, a rate of, a share of

Common traps

Choosing amount because it sounds like a measurement word. Countable days call for number.
Choosing ideal because two days a week looks like a plan. The sentence is reporting attendance and calls the position still not close.
Trusting the article. Every option here begins with a vowel, so 'an' eliminates nothing.

The countable-versus-uncountable pair is keyed directly at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.21, where 'number' beats amount, percent and height.

This passage's other blanks — a verb at Q.21, a collocation at Q.22, an adjective of feeling at Q.23 and a superlative at Q.24 — show the spread SSC puts into one five-blank passage.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. Rory Cooper was a top aide to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the up-and-coming Virginia Republican who lost a 2014 House primary. He was also a prominent Never Trumper, openly (1)______________ how awful he found the 45th president. The cause Cooper has (2)______________ himself to for the past year, though, is closer to home. He is, as he puts it in his Twitter bio, ‘Apparently Mr. Open the Schools’. A father of a fifth grader, a second grader and a kindergartner, Cooper is (3) ___________ because the public schools in Fairfax, Virginia, where he lives, have not reopened. Fairfax, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, is one of the school districts that has moved (4) ___________ toward in-person learning, and it is still not close: only in the past few weeks have students started to return to classrooms, and only about half of those eligible have opted to go back, for an (5) ________________ of two days a week.