SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 19 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 phrase. A person who is kept captive for fulfilment of demands of money or conditions

(a)Hostage
(b)Hermit
(c)Heretic
(d)Introvert

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The phrase sets two conditions: the person is held against their will, and the captor wants something in return — money, or conditions met.

A hostage is exactly that: someone seized and held as security until a demand is satisfied.

Confinement alone would allow captive, prisoner or detainee. It is the demand attached to the confinement that narrows the phrase to hostage.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Hermit — A hermit withdraws from society by choice, often for religious reasons. Nobody holds a hermit, and no demand is attached to the solitude.
(c)
Heretic — A heretic holds an opinion that contradicts established religious doctrine. The word is about belief, not about captivity.
(d)
Introvert — An introvert prefers their own company to social activity. It names a temperament someone has, not a situation someone is forced into.

Concept

A one-word substitute is decided by the defining element of the phrase, not by its general mood.

Split this phrase in two: kept captive gives you confinement, and for fulfilment of demands gives you leverage. Many words cover confinement. Only the leverage points at hostage.

The three wrong options describe how a person lives or thinks — alone, unorthodox, inward. None of them involves a second party making a demand, so none can be reached from this phrase however loosely you read it.

Hermit and Heretic sit next to Hostage alphabetically and all three name a kind of person, which is what makes the option set feel closer than it is.

Key facts

Hostage: a person held captive so that a demand for money or for conditions is met.
Hermit: a person who lives alone and away from society, often for religious reasons.
Heretic: a person whose belief contradicts established religious doctrine.
Introvert: a reserved person who is more comfortable alone than in company.

Study next

One-word substitutes for people defined by confinement: captive, detainee, convict, interneeOne-word substitutes drawn from religion: heretic, apostate, ascetic, agnosticSeparating the defining element of a definition from its background detail

Common traps

Choosing hermit because it also describes someone kept apart from other people.
Answering from the first half of the phrase and never reading the demand clause.

SSC gives the definition and asks for the word, and the wrong options are usually near neighbours in spelling or in field rather than random words.

The same format runs at English Q.14 of this shift ("a person who performs magic to entertain people", keyed Magician) and at English Q.20 on 12 Sep 2024, 09:00 ("a false idea or belief", keyed Fallacy).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.