SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. Sivamani is working as an electrician for the past 22 years.

(a)had been worked
(b)has been working
(c)have been working
(d)would work

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is for the past 22 years — a stretch of time that begins in the past and runs up to now. English marks that with the present perfect continuous: has or have been plus the -ing form.

The subject is Sivamani, one person, so the auxiliary is has, not have.

That gives has been working, and the sentence closes properly: Sivamani has been working as an electrician for the past 22 years.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
had been worked — had been worked is past perfect and passive. Sivamani does the working, he is not worked upon, and a past perfect also cuts the link to the present that for the past 22 years insists on.
(c)
have been working — have been working is the right tense with the wrong auxiliary. A third-person singular subject like Sivamani takes has; have would need a plural subject, or I, or you.
(d)
would work — would work describes a past habit or a hypothetical, and neither reaches the present. It also drops the -ing that a continuing action needs.

Concept

Two clues in a sentence choose the tense, and they must agree with each other.

The time expression goes first. For plus a duration (for 22 years, for the past 22 years) and since plus a starting point (since 2002) both call for a perfect form, because both measure from a point in the past up to now.

The subject then fixes the auxiliary — has for he, she, it and a single name, have for I, you, we, they and plurals.

The present continuous, is working, cannot host for the past 22 years, which is why the printed sentence has to be repaired.

The sentence as printed is a habitual slip in everyday speech, where is working is stretched to cover a duration it cannot carry. Move it into the perfect continuous and the duration and the tense finally agree.

Key facts

For plus a duration and since plus a starting point both call for a perfect tense, not a simple continuous.
The present perfect continuous is has or have been plus the -ing form, linking a past start to the present.
A third-person singular subject takes has been, while I, you, we, they and plurals take have been.

Study next

For against since with the perfect tensesPresent perfect against present perfect continuous, as in has worked and has been workingStative verbs that stay in the simple perfect, such as has known her for ten years

Common traps

Keeping the present continuous because the action genuinely is still going on
Choosing have been working and missing that Sivamani is one person
Swapping for and since without checking whether the phrase names a duration or a point

SSC prints the wrong tense inside the sentence and underlines it, so the work is to find the time expression first and let it choose the tense.

The same duration-and-tense pairing is tested at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.20 (has been studying for two o'clock, corrected to since two o'clock)
and at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.6 (I have been living in Hyderabad since I am born, corrected to since I was born).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.