SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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 meaning of the given idiom. Break the ice

(a)Nervousness before a performance
(b)To say or do something that makes people feel more relaxed, especially at the
(c)Respect for someone’s achievements
(d)Ill-feeling carried by a person over a period of time

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Break the ice means to say or do something that eases the stiffness among people who do not yet know one another, especially at the start of a meeting or a gathering. Option (b) gives that meaning.

The ice is the silence between strangers, and breaking it is the first joke, question or introduction that gets them talking. English keeps the same picture in the noun icebreaker.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Nervousness before a performance — Nervousness before a performance is stage fright. It names a feeling inside one person, while breaking the ice is something done to loosen up a group.
(c)
Respect for someone’s achievements — Respect for a person's achievements is what taking your hat off to someone expresses. Break the ice carries no sense of esteem at all.
(d)
Ill-feeling carried by a person over a period of time — Ill-feeling carried over a period of time is holding a grudge. Break the ice describes awkwardness being removed, not resentment being nursed.

Concept

Idioms are memory work, but the picture inside the idiom makes the memory hold. Ice is what sits between people who have not spoken yet — cold, hard and silent.

Break the ice is therefore the first move that starts a conversation. The same picture survives in icebreaker, the word for a game or remark used to open a gathering.

With the picture fixed, the wrong options fail visibly: not one of them is about a group beginning to talk.

The keyed option reaches this page truncated, breaking off at 'especially at the'. The missing words name the start of a meeting or conversation, and the sense of the option is already settled by the part that is printed.

Key facts

Break the ice means to relieve tension or shyness among people meeting for the first time.
An icebreaker is a remark, game or activity used for that purpose.
Break a leg is the idiom for wishing someone good luck before a performance.
To hold a grudge is to nurse ill-feeling over a period of time.

Study next

Ice idioms: break the ice, on thin ice, cut no icePerformance idioms: break a leg, stage fright, steal the showIdioms of first contact and social ease: break the ice, hit it off

Common traps

Confusing break the ice with break a leg, since both begin with break and both live around gatherings
Picking the stage-fright option because nervousness is what breaking the ice is meant to relieve

SSC runs break the ice and break a leg against each other.

Break a leg is keyed as wishing someone good luck before a performance on 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.4, and break the ice appears as a wrong choice beside it in a substitution item on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.3.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.