SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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 10 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 substitute/replace the bracketed word correctly and complete the sentence. He (seek) for the wallet in his pocket.

(a)Are seeking
(b)Sought
(c)Seeking
(d)Had seeking

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The bracket holds the sentence's own verb, so the slot needs a finite form that agrees with the singular subject He.

Sought is the past tense of seek and keeps one shape for every subject, so agreement is satisfied without an auxiliary.

No auxiliary appears anywhere else in the clause, which is what rules the other three out: a bare participle cannot stand alone, and an auxiliary that does not fit He cannot be brought in.

Read it whole — He sought for the wallet in his pocket — and nothing is missing. Option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Are seeking — Are is plural and the subject He is singular. The continuous form also reports action in progress, which does not match a single completed search.
(c)
Seeking — Seeking is a participle, not a finite verb. With no form of be in front of it, the sentence is left with no verb at all.
(d)
Had seeking — Had must be followed by a past participle, giving had sought. Had seeking is not a tense in English.

Concept

Bracketed-verb items give you a verb in its dictionary form and ask for the form the sentence actually needs. Two questions settle nearly all of them.

Is this slot the clause's finite verb? If nothing else carries tense, the bracketed word must, so a bare -ing form is ruled out at once.

Does the form agree with the subject, and does its tense match the time reported? He is third person singular and the search is one completed act, so the simple past sought is what fits.

The paper writes seek for. Seek normally takes a direct object without a preposition, but the phrasing is the Commission's and the item turns on the verb form, not on the preposition.

Key facts

Seek is irregular: seek, sought, sought.
A bare -ing form is non-finite and needs a form of be in front of it.
Had is followed by a past participle, giving had sought, never had seeking.

Study next

Irregular past forms that end in -ought: seek, buy, bring, thinkFinite versus non-finite verbs, and when a clause needs an auxiliarySubject-verb agreement with third person singular subjects

Common traps

Picking Are seeking for its continuous sense and missing that are cannot take He.
Choosing Seeking because the sentence reads smoothly at speed, though it has no finite verb.

The bracketed-verb format returns at 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, EC Q.18, where If he runs takes will get, and at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, EC Q.16, where I said I (don't) understand backshifts to didn't. Verb form is also what the error-spotting item at 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, EC Q.19 turns on.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.