SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 14 of 100

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 10 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.

Parts of a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the parts in the correct order to form a meaningful sentence. P) always favours Q) only the R) fortune S) bold

(a)RPQS
(b)SQPR
(c)SRQP
(d)PQRS

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Find the subject first: fortune (R) is the one chunk that can act as the subject of favours, so it opens the sentence.

fortune (R) — subject
always favours (P) — frequency adverb before the main verb, then the verb itself

only the (Q) — restrictive adverb plus the article it restricts
bold (S) — the adjective used as a noun, giving the object

That assembles as Fortune always favours only the bold — the order RPQS, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
SQPR — SQPR opens on bold and ends on fortune, so the adjective is left doing subject work while the real subject noun is stranded at the far end.
(c)
SRQP — SRQP gives bold fortune only the always favours. The verb closes the string with nothing after it, and the article the is left with no noun to attach to.
(d)
PQRS — PQRS starts with the verb phrase always favours, so there is no subject in front of the verb and the string reads as a fragment.

Concept

Assemble by slot, not by feel. An English statement runs subject – adverb – verb – object, and each chunk here fills exactly one of those slots.

Fortune is the one noun able to act, so R is fixed at the front. A frequency adverb such as always stands before the main verb, which welds P immediately behind it.

The tail turns on a small rule: an adjective after the — the bold, the rich, the young — behaves as a plural noun meaning people of that kind, so bold can close the sentence.

The string is the familiar proverb fortune favours the bold with two words added, so the meaning is easy to guess. The item is still decided by where always and only may legally stand.

Key facts

Frequency adverbs such as always, never and often stand before the main verb: fortune always favours.
The plus an adjective names a class of people, so the bold means bold people.
Only is a restrictive adverb attaching to the phrase that follows it, giving only the bold.

Study next

Adverb placement — frequency adverbs against adverbs of mannerThe plus adjective as a plural noun (the poor, the young, the accused)How the position of only changes what a sentence restricts

Common traps

Starting from bold because the proverb ends on that word and it feels like the emphatic opener
Writing only always favours, which puts the restrictive adverb where English will not take it
Placing always after the verb, which is where adverbs of manner go, not frequency adverbs

SSC builds these jumbles from very short chunks so the order is decided by grammar rather than by any flow of ideas.

Compare 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 (my son is not willing to go camping), where the subject chunk again has to be located before anything else moves.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.