SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 option that can substitute the underlined words in the given sentence. Ranjith failed in all his exams as he had been addicted of social media.

(a)as he had been addicted to
(b)as he had been addicted at
(c)as he had been addicted on
(d)as he had been addicted in

Answer

Why

Correct — A. All four options repeat the same words and change only the last one, so the item tests a single thing: the preposition that addicted governs.

That preposition is to. English fixes it by collocation — addicted to a drug, addicted to social media — and no rule of meaning will derive it.

So the segment becomes as he had been addicted to, option (a), and the tense had been addicted stays untouched.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
as he had been addicted at — At marks a point or a skill, as in good at mathematics. It never follows addicted.
(c)
as he had been addicted on — On is the preposition of dependence and enthusiasm — dependent on, keen on — but addicted on is not English.
(d)
as he had been addicted in — In goes with interest and involvement, as in interested in. Addicted in has no currency in standard usage.

Concept

A preposition after an adjective or participle is a collocation. It is learnt with the word, not worked out from the meaning, which is why four plausible-looking prepositions can be offered with only one right.

One detail is worth carrying away. In addicted to, the to is a preposition and not the marker of an infinitive, so a verb after it takes the -ing form: addicted to gambling, never addicted to gamble.

The same to turns up in looking forward to, given to and be used to, and all three take -ing.

Bare used to is a different word: it is the past-habit auxiliary and takes a plain verb — I used to go, never I used to going.

The sentence prints addicted of, a form that appears in speech but is not accepted in written standard English.

Key facts

Addicted governs the preposition to, as in addicted to social media.
After addicted to, a following verb takes the -ing form because to here is a preposition.
The four options differ only in their final word, which marks the item as a pure preposition test.

Study next

Adjective and participle collocations such as afraid of, capable of and deprived ofStructures where to is a preposition and forces an -ing verb after itSubstitution items whose options are identical except for one word

Common traps

Reading the to of addicted to as an infinitive marker and writing addicted to gamble
Rewriting the tense as well when only the preposition is at fault
Reaching for on by analogy with dependent on

Here the options are four copies of one phrase with the preposition swapped. The same shape appears on 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.24, where depend on is keyed against depend from, at and in.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 84 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.