SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. Speaking disrespectfully about sacred or religious things.

(a)Mystic
(b)Atheist
(c)Blasphemy
(d)Theist

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Read what the definition asks for before you read the words. "Speaking disrespectfully about sacred or religious things" names an act, not a person.

Blasphemy is that act — irreverent speech about God or about whatever is held sacred. The person who commits it would be a blasphemer, and that word is not on offer.

The grammatical shape settles the item: option (c) is the abstract noun naming an act, and the remaining three are agent nouns naming people.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Mystic — Mystic names a person who seeks direct experience of the divine. That is reverent rather than disrespectful, and it is a person rather than an act.
(b)
Atheist — Atheist names a person who does not believe in God. Disbelief is a position held, not disrespectful speech, and again the word denotes a person.
(d)
Theist — Theist names a person who does believe in God. It is the straight opposite of atheist and has no connection to irreverent speech.

Concept

One-word-substitute items are decided in two moves.

First read the grammatical category the definition asks for. "Speaking disrespectfully..." is a gerund phrase naming an activity, so the answer must be an abstract noun, not an agent noun.

Then match the sense. Blasphemy is speech against the sacred. Sacrilege is the violation or misuse of something sacred, usually an object or a place. Heresy is belief that departs from accepted doctrine.

Sorting by category first removes most of the field before you weigh any definitions.

Notice the pairing SSC offers: atheist and theist are exact opposites of each other, so neither can gloss a definition that mentions neither belief nor disbelief.

Key facts

Blasphemy is irreverent speech about God or about sacred things.
Its agent noun is blasphemer and its adjective is blasphemous.
Sacrilege is the violation or misuse of something sacred, usually an object or a place.
A theist believes in God, an atheist does not, and an agnostic holds the question unsettled.

Study next

Abstract nouns versus agent nouns in one-word substitutionReligious vocabulary: blasphemy, sacrilege, heresy, apostasyBelief words: theist, atheist, agnostic, deist

Common traps

Picking atheist because the definition mentions religion.
Answering with the person who does the thing when the definition names the thing itself.

SSC returns to this belief vocabulary. The agnostic definition is set at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.2 ("A person who is unsure about God's existence"), with Atheist and Theist sitting in the same option list as distractors.

The meaning of atheist inside a sentence is asked at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.14.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.