SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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.

Select the most appropriate homophone to fill in the blank. The summer was ______ hot this year.

(a)to
(b)tow
(c)two
(d)too

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The blank stands between was and the adjective hot, so the slot needs an adverb of degree — and of the four spellings only too is one.

Too means to an excessive degree, so the sentence says the summer was excessively hot.

The other three spellings are its homophones doing different jobs — a preposition, a noun and a verb — and none of them can modify an adjective. Option (d) is the key.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
to — to is a preposition, or the marker of the infinitive (to school, to run). It cannot intensify an adjective, so to hot is not English.
(b)
tow — tow is a verb meaning to pull a vehicle along, or the noun in on tow. That spelling carries no adverbial sense at all.
(c)
two — two is the number 2. Putting it before hot would start counting summers instead of describing the heat.

Concept

Homophones sound alike and are spelt differently, so the item is decided by word class and meaning and never by sound.

Test the slot first. Whatever stands between was and hot must be an adverb of degree — very, quite, rather, too. That eliminates a preposition, a numeral and a verb in one move.

Then check the sense. Too means more than is wanted or bearable, which is exactly the complaint the sentence is making, and it is the spelling with the doubled o.

To, too and two are all offered here, so the choice cannot be made by ear. Name the job the word has to do in the sentence, and the spelling follows.

Key facts

Too has two uses: excessively, as in too hot, and also, as in I want to come too.
To is a preposition or the marker of the infinitive, as in to run.
Tow is a verb meaning to pull something along, unrelated in sense to to or too.

Study next

Common homophone sets — their and there and they are, its and it is, principal and principleAdverbs of degree and where they stand relative to the adjectiveToo against very against enough inside an adjective phrase

Common traps

Filling the blank by sound and writing to, which is the commonest of the three spellings
Confusing too with so — too carries the sense of excess, of more than is wanted
Reading tow and two as unlikely and then choosing between the remaining two by guesswork

SSC gives one blank and four homophone spellings, so the fastest route is to name the part of speech the slot needs.

The same format is asked at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2 (rode, road, rowed, rote) and at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.4 (floor, flour, flower).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.