SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 17 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 idiom that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. Roshan, it’s time for you to give your speech to the whole school, wishing you luck to do well.

(a)break a leg
(b)hands down
(c)high five
(d)down in the dumps

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The sentence sets a performance about to begin — a speech to the whole school — and the underlined words are a wish of good luck for it.

Break a leg is the idiom for precisely that moment: good luck, said to a performer just before they go on. The key takes option (a).

The situation is the trigger, not the words alone. Move the sentence to a contest already won and a different idiom in this list would take over.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
hands down — Hands down means easily or by a clear margin, as in won hands down. It reports how a contest ended, so it cannot carry a wish made before the speech starts.
(c)
high five — A high five is the celebratory slap of raised palms. It marks success that has already happened, and Roshan has not yet spoken.
(d)
down in the dumps — Down in the dumps means miserable and low in spirits. It reports a mood rather than offering a wish, and the mood is the wrong one for this sentence.

Concept

This item runs an idiom question backwards: you are given the plain-English meaning and asked for the idiom, rather than the other way about.

The plain words are a wish of good luck, and the setting is a performance about to start. Break a leg is tied to that setting — it is said to a performer immediately before they go on.

The usual account of the phrase is theatrical superstition: wishing luck outright is held to invite the reverse, so the wish is put backwards.

All four options are ordinary idioms, but each belongs to a different moment — before the event, after a win, at a celebration, or in a low mood. Timing, not meaning alone, is what eliminates the three that fail.

Key facts

Break a leg means good luck, said to a performer before a performance.
Hands down means easily or by a clear margin.
Down in the dumps means unhappy or low in spirits.

Study next

Idioms of encouragement and good wishesIdioms describing the manner of a victory: hands down, by a whisker, neck and neckReading the situation in the sentence before matching an idiom to it

Common traps

Picking high five, which celebrates a result instead of wishing for one.
Reading only the words good luck and ignoring that the sentence stands just before a performance.

SSC asks this idiom in more than one shape.

It is defined bare at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.4, and set as a substitution for wished me good luck before I went on the stage to sing at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.3.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.