SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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. The study of ancient things such as art, graves, ruins etc.

(a)Astrology
(b)Meteorology
(c)Archaeology
(d)Geology

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The clue names ancient things — art, graves, ruins — and that is what the word itself says.

Archaeology is Greek arkhaios (ancient) + -logia (study of): the study of the human past through what people left behind, recovered by excavating sites.

Art, graves and ruins are exactly such remains, so the clue and the root line up term for term — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Astrology — Astrology reads the positions of stars and planets for their supposed influence on human affairs. Its root is astron, star, and it studies the sky, not remains.
(b)
Meteorology — Meteorology is the science of the atmosphere and of weather. Its root is meteoron, a thing high in the air, which places it nowhere near graves or ruins.
(d)
Geology — Geology studies the Earth itself — rocks, strata and the processes that formed them. It shares the digging with archaeology but not the subject, which is the planet, not people.

Concept

Every option here ends in -logy, from Greek -logia, a body of study. When a set is built that way the answer is decided by the first half of the word.

arkhaios = ancient, so archaeology
astron = star, so astrology
meteoron = thing in the air, so meteorology
ge = earth, so geology

Match the noun in the clue to the root and the option falls out without needing a full definition of any of the four.

Archaeology and history both study the past, but archaeology works from material remains rather than from written records, which is what the clue's art, graves and ruins point at.

Key facts

Archaeology is the study of the human past through material remains such as artefacts, graves and ruins.
The suffix -logy comes from Greek -logia, meaning study or discourse.
Geology and archaeology both involve excavation, but geology's subject is the Earth's rocks and structure.
Astrology claims an influence of celestial bodies on human affairs, while astronomy is the science of those bodies.

Study next

The -logy words worth grouping: anthropology, etymology, ornithology, seismologyGreek roots for age and time: arkhaios, palaios, chronosSciences distinguished from their look-alikes: astronomy against astrology

Common traps

Choosing geology because both subjects involve digging
Confusing astrology with astronomy

The -logy family travels between shifts: archaeology appears again as an option on 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.13, where the keyed word is psychology. One-word substitution also appears in this paper at English Q.10, Q.13 and Q.20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.