SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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 most appropriate ANTONYM of the underlined word in the following sentence. The movie's plot was predictable, with clichéd twists and turns.

(a)undeviating
(b)unexpected
(c)evident
(d)infelicitous

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Read the sense the sentence uses: a predictable plot is one whose twists the audience can see coming.

The opposite of that is a plot whose turns you do not see coming — unexpected, option (b).

Note that SSC has not offered unpredictable. The antonym is supplied as a paraphrase, so match on meaning rather than looking for an un- form of the printed word.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
undeviating — Undeviating means never turning aside from a fixed course. That is close to predictable, not opposite to it, which makes it the planted synonym.
(c)
evident — Evident means plain to see or obvious. It is about how clear something is once present, not about whether it could be foreseen.
(d)
infelicitous — Infelicitous means unfortunate or badly chosen, usually of a phrase. It judges aptness, so it sits on a different axis from foreseeability altogether.

Concept

The word is underlined inside a sentence, so the sentence fixes which sense of it you must reverse. Here predictable is used of a story, meaning the audience knows what is coming.

An antonym must reverse that sense on that axis. Foreseeable reverses to unforeseeable, not to unclear and not to badly written.

The usual trap in this item is an option that shares the sentence's mood — clichéd, dull, disappointing — without being the opposite of the underlined word.

Undeviating is the option built to look like an opposite. Its un- reads as a negation, but what it negates is deviating - which leaves the word meaning steady and unchanging, on the same side as predictable rather than against it.

Key facts

Predictable means behaving or happening in a way that can be foreseen.
Undeviating means not turning aside from a course, so it is nearer a synonym of predictable.
Infelicitous means unfortunate or inapt, most often said of an expression.
Evident means clear to see or understand.

Study next

Antonyms supplied as a paraphrase rather than a prefixed formThe predict family: predictable, unpredictable, prediction, predictiveWords about clarity against words about foreseeability: evident, obvious, foreseeable

Common traps

Hunting for a word beginning un-, in-, or dis- and stopping there
Choosing evident by sliding from obvious to expected
Picking the hardest word on the list on the assumption SSC keys the unfamiliar one

SSC runs the antonym item both as a bare word and as a word underlined or bolded inside a sentence.

The key is sometimes a prefixed form and sometimes a plain paraphrase: compare 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.12 (Entire, keyed Incomplete) with 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.9 (Monotonous, keyed Engrossing).

This shift also runs antonyms at English Q.6 (Candid, printed bare), Q.9 (abolish, in bold), Q.12 (chronic, underlined) and Q.15 (Reluctant, printed bare).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.