SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 13 of 97

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 synonym of the given word. Cherish

(a)Neglect
(b)Afflict
(c)Nurture
(d)Breach

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Cherish is not simply to like something. It is to hold it dear and to look after it — you cherish a memory, a friendship, a hope.

Nurture carries the same double load: affection plus active care, as in nurturing a talent or a hope.

The overlap is easy to test with a collocation both words take. You can cherish a hope and nurture a hope, and the sentence means much the same either way → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Neglect — Neglect means to fail to care for something. It is the opposite of cherish, sitting here for anyone who reads the stem as asking for an antonym.
(b)
Afflict — Afflict means to cause pain or suffering to someone. It carries harm where cherish carries care, so the two pull in opposite directions.
(d)
Breach — Breach means to break through something or to violate an agreement, or the gap that results. It has no sense of holding a thing dear.

Concept

Cherish is not just to like. It combines two ideas — holding something dear, and actively looking after it. You cherish a memory, a friendship, a hope, a child.

Nurture carries the same pair. It means to care for something and help it grow, and it takes abstract objects as readily as living ones: nurturing a talent, a hope, an ambition.

The overlap is testable with a shared collocation. Both words take "a hope" as an object, and in a four-option item that shared object is the strongest evidence you have.

The field includes an outright antonym in Neglect, which is what an unread stem costs you. Check whether the item wants a synonym or an ANTONYM before you look at the options at all.

Key facts

Cherish means to hold dear and to care for something valued.
Nurture means to care for something and encourage it to grow.
Both words take "a hope" as an object, which is the clearest sign of their overlap.
Neglect, to fail to care for something, is the opposite of cherish.

Study next

Cherish, treasure, prize and value, and the shades between themNurture used of abstract objects — a hope, a grievance, an ambitionSynonym items that plant an outright antonym among the four options

Common traps

Reading Neglect as the answer after skimming the stem and missing that it asks for a synonym.
Rejecting Nurture because it suggests raising children, when it applies equally to hopes, talents and ideas.
Picking Afflict on the sound of the word rather than on its meaning.

SSC keys a single headword against four one-word options with no sentence to lean on, so the item is pure vocabulary.

Nurture also turns up in an option slot at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.3, where the ANTONYM of Catastrophe is keyed "Success".

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.