SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 3 of 98

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 segment in the given sentence. Mr. Adhil called back but he wasn’t able to find the scooter part he needed.

(a)called down but he wasn’t able to
(b)called up to but he wasn’t able to
(c)called off but he wasn’t able to
(d)called around but he wasn’t able to

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Mr. Adhil is hunting for a scooter part, which means trying several sellers, not one.

Call around means to telephone a number of different people or places to find something or check what is available — exactly the search the clause describes.

Only the particle needs replacing; the rest of the underlined segment is already correct → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
called down but he wasn’t able to — Call down means to invoke something, as in call down a blessing, or informally to scold. Neither sense involves ringing round shops for a part.
(b)
called up to but he wasn’t able to — Call up means to telephone someone, or to summon for military service. Even in the phoning sense it points at one person, and the added to leaves the clause ungrammatical.
(c)
called off but he wasn’t able to — Call off means to cancel — a match, a search, a deal. It needs something already arranged as its object, and nothing here has been arranged.

Concept

A substitution item hands you a phrasal verb that is already idiomatic and asks for the particle that carries the intended sense.

Called back is not bad English — it means to return someone's phone call. It is simply the wrong meaning here, because the sentence is about a search across sellers.

So the test is meaning, not grammar. Settle what the sentence needs first, ring round several places, then find the particle that names it: around is the one that spreads an action over many destinations.

This is a comprehension test dressed as a grammar test. Every option is a real phrasal verb except called up to, so you cannot solve it by spotting a form that does not exist.

Key facts

Call around means to phone several people or places, usually to find something.
Call back means to return a phone call.
Call off means to cancel something already arranged.
Call up means to telephone someone, or to summon someone for military service.

Study next

The call family: call on, call for, call in, call outParticles that change a verb entirely: put off, put up, put downSubstitution items where the underlined phrase is grammatical but wrong in sense

Common traps

Rejecting called back as ungrammatical, when it is only the wrong meaning
Choosing called off, which cancels an arrangement, when nothing here has been arranged
Missing that called up to is not a standard phrasal verb at all

The same substitution form runs at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.13, where put on has to become put off. This shift also asks for a phrasal verb outright at English Q.1, where a solution has to be come up with.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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