SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. One who tends to look at the dark side of things

(a)Pessimist
(b)Polemist
(c)Dynamist
(d)Optimist

Answer

Why

Correct — A. A pessimist expects the worse outcome. The word is built on Latin pessimus, worst.

Looks at the dark side of things is the standard plain-English gloss for that habit of mind, so the stem's definition and the word line up directly. The key takes option (a).

Its mirror, optimist, sits at (d) from Latin optimus, best — the same item run the other way round, which is why the word dark in the stem is doing all the work.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Polemist — A polemist deals in polemics, that is, forceful argument and dispute. The word describes how a person argues, not what they expect to happen.
(c)
Dynamist — Dynamist attaches to dynamism — force, energy, movement. Nothing in it describes how a person reads the likely outcome of events.
(d)
Optimist — Optimist is the exact reverse: from Latin optimus, best, it names the person who looks at the bright side. Skimming the stem is how this option collects marks.

Concept

A one-word substitute item is a definition read backwards, and the pairs SSC likes best are the ones that come in opposites.

Pessimist, from Latin pessimus (worst), names the person who expects the worse outcome — in the stem's words, one who looks at the dark side of things.

Optimist, from optimus (best), is the same word run the other way. SSC has set the two as each other's distractors in the items linked below, so the deciding word in the stem is dark, and reading it fast is what costs the mark.

Polemist and dynamist are not the ordinary vocabulary of temperament, and their unfamiliarity is the pull. An option you cannot define is not more likely to be right for being obscure.

Key facts

Pessimist comes from Latin pessimus, meaning worst.
Optimist comes from Latin optimus, meaning best.
A polemic is a strong spoken or written attack on an opinion, and a polemist is one who makes them.

Study next

Confusable one-word substitutes for people: optimist, pessimist, cynic, stoicLatin superlatives inside English words: optimus, pessimus, maximus, minimusOne-word substitutes for habits of mind and temperament

Common traps

Skimming the stem and picking optimist because both words describe an outlook.
Reaching for an unfamiliar option like polemist on the assumption that the hard word must be the answer.

SSC asks this pair from both ends.

The mirror stem, one who looks at the bright side of things, is keyed to Optimist at 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5, and a person who is inclined to see the worst aspect of things is keyed to Pessimist at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.