SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 100

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 be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. A person who performs magic to entertain people

(a)Angel
(b)Magician
(c)Palmist
(d)Alchemist

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The definition has two limbs and the answer must satisfy both: performs magic and to entertain people.

A magician is precisely that — someone who performs conjuring tricks or illusions for an audience.

Each of the others fails a limb. An angel performs no magic, a palmist reads hands instead of performing, and an alchemist worked at metals rather than at entertaining. Option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Angel — An angel is a spiritual being or messenger, and in loose use a very kind person. Neither sense involves performing magic.
(c)
Palmist — A palmist reads the lines of the hand to tell character or fortune. That is a claimed reading, not a performance staged to entertain.
(d)
Alchemist — An alchemist practised alchemy, chiefly the attempt to turn base metals into gold. The work was private and pseudo-scientific, not a show.

Concept

One-word substitution is a matching exercise: split the phrase into its parts and keep only the word that answers all of them.

The parts here are the activity, magic, and the purpose, to entertain people. The purpose is what does the work, because several English words touch the occult without touching entertainment.

Palmistry and alchemy name such practices, and their practitioners are palmist and alchemist — words placed beside the plain answer to see whether you read the whole definition.

Nothing in the stem is technical, so the item rewards reading rather than vocabulary. A candidate who stops at the word magic can justify three of the four options.

Key facts

A magician performs conjuring tricks or illusions to entertain an audience.
A palmist claims to read character or the future from the lines of the hand.
An alchemist practised alchemy, chiefly the attempt to turn base metals into gold.
Angel means a spiritual being or messenger, with "a kind person" as a figurative use.

Study next

Practitioner nouns SSC recycles: palmist, alchemist, astrologer, ventriloquistOne-word substitutes built from a definition with two limbsWords for claimed foreknowledge: soothsayer, clairvoyant, oracle

Common traps

Answering from the word magic alone and taking any occult-sounding option.
Reading alchemist as a general worker of wonders.
Skipping the purpose clause, which is the part that separates the options.

The stem gives a definition and the options give one plausible near-miss for each part of it.

One-word substitution also appears in this shift at English Q.19 (a person held captive against a demand for money → Hostage), and at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11 (Archaeology) and 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.8 (Stoic).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.