SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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. and has also created a wide gap between them Q. laid too much stress on R. teachers and students S. online mode of education has

(a)SQRP
(b)PSQR
(c)RQPS
(d)SRPQ

Answer

Why

Correct — A. S is the part that can open, because it is the part with a subject: online mode of education has. That has is an incomplete auxiliary and needs a past participle.

Q supplies it — laid too much stress on — and Q ends on the preposition on, which needs an object.

R is that object, teachers and students, and it is plural, which is what P's them points back to.

S-Q-R-P reads: online mode of education has laid too much stress on teachers and students and has also created a wide gap between them. That is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
PSQR — PSQR opens on P, and P begins with the coordinating conjunction and. A sentence cannot open with and joining it to nothing that came before.
(c)
RQPS — RQPS makes teachers and students the ones who laid the stress, reversing who does what, and it strands S at the end with its auxiliary has left hanging.
(d)
SRPQ — SRPQ gives online mode of education has teachers and students, which drops the participle that has requires, and it ends on Q's dangling preposition on.

Concept

A parts jumble is solved at the joins, not by reading the four orders end to end.

Three joins settle this sentence. has in S is an incomplete auxiliary and demands a participle. on at the end of Q is a preposition and demands an object. them in P is a pronoun and demands a plural noun already named.

Chain them: S needs Q, Q needs R, and R supplies the plural that P's them refers to. The order falls out as SQRP without any option being read whole.

P's opening and is the fastest single elimination available: any order that begins with P is gone before it is read.

Key facts

A part beginning with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or) cannot open the sentence.
An auxiliary such as has must be completed by a past participle, here laid.
A part ending in a preposition must be followed by the part supplying its object.
A pronoun such as them must come after the plural noun it stands for, never before it.

Study next

Auxiliary-and-participle pairs as the join in parts-jumble itemsPronoun-antecedent order as an ordering clueParagraph jumbles, where the same joins work at sentence level

Common traps

Reading all four printed orders end to end instead of testing the joins
Placing P early because and reads as a natural connector, without checking what it connects

SSC runs both the lettered parts jumble and a sentence-level paragraph jumble.

A parts jumble at 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.7 turns on the same reading, where one part ends in and and another ends in is that, each naming what must follow it. A five-part version sits at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.