SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 12 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 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 sentence in which the ‘-ing’ form of verb expresses the continuity of an action/event.

(a)I am fond of reading science fiction.
(b)The optician advised me to use reading glasses.
(c)Reading novels is my favourite pastime.
(d)Please do not disturb me. I am preparing for exams.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. In I am preparing for exams, the -ing word follows the auxiliary am. Be + -ing is the continuous form, and that is the only structure in English that reports an action still in progress.

That is exactly what the stem asks for: continuity of an action or event.

In the three rejected sentences no form of be stands in front of the -ing word. It is doing a noun's job or an adjective's job, so nothing about it is continuous.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
I am fond of reading science fiction. — In I am fond of reading science fiction, reading follows the preposition of, which makes it a gerund — a verb doing a noun's work. The auxiliary am belongs to the adjective fond, not to reading.
(b)
The optician advised me to use reading glasses. — In reading glasses, reading modifies the noun glasses and tells you what the glasses are for. It is working as an adjective, and no action is under way.
(c)
Reading novels is my favourite pastime. — Reading novels is the subject of its sentence, so reading is a gerund again. A gerund names an activity in general and pins it to no moment in time.

Concept

An -ing word wears three hats in English.

As a gerund it does a noun's job — subject, object, or object of a preposition: Reading novels is my pastime.

As a participle it does an adjective's job: reading glasses, a boring film.

It builds a continuous tense only when a form of be stands in front of it: am preparing, was making, has been working. That auxiliary is the whole test, and it is visible on the page, so you never have to guess.

The be + -ing frame does more than one job — I am flying to Delhi tomorrow is a fixed future arrangement, not an action in progress. The stem asks which sentence expresses continuity, so you want the frame plus a present-time reading, which is what option (d) gives.

Key facts

Be + -ing (am preparing, was writing) is the continuous form and marks an action in progress.
A gerund is an -ing word doing a noun's job, as subject, as object, or after a preposition.
A participle is an -ing word doing an adjective's job, as in reading glasses.

Study next

Gerund against present participle after verbs such as stop, remember and tryThe present continuous used for a fixed future arrangementStative verbs that resist the continuous form, such as know, believe and own

Common traps

Seeing am in I am fond of reading and taking it as the auxiliary of reading
Assuming every -ing word signals a continuous tense
Reading reading glasses as an action rather than a description of the glasses

SSC frames this as a four-sentence sort: one sentence carries a genuine continuous tense, the rest use the -ing word as a gerund or a modifier, and you are asked which shows continuity.

The same be + -ing frame decides the answer at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.15, where for the past 22 years forces has been working.

Related PYQs

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