SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 10 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 word pair that best represents a similar relationship to the one expressed in the pair of words given below. (The words must be considered as meaningful English words and must not be related to each other based on the number of letters/number of consonants/vowels in the word) Cessation : Beginning

(a)Plutonic : Abyssal
(b)Enormous : Miniscule
(c)Obsession : Problem
(d)Incredible : Magnificent

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Rule: the given pair is a pair of opposites.

Cessation means a stopping or an ending, so Cessation : Beginning sets an end against a start.

Enormous means very large and miniscule means very small, so Enormous : Miniscule repeats that relation exactly — option (b).

The paper spells it miniscule; the standard spelling is minuscule. The spelling does not touch the relation being tested.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Plutonic : Abyssal — Neither word opposes the other. Both carry the sense of great depth, so the pair sits close in meaning where the given pair is opposed.
(c)
Obsession : Problem — An obsession may well be a problem, which makes this a loose one-way association rather than the clean opposition the given pair sets up.
(d)
Incredible : Magnificent — Both are words of praise, one for the unbelievable and one for the splendid. Two positives cannot mirror an end-against-start pair.

Concept

A word-pair analogy is decided by the relation, never by the subject matter. Name the relation in the given pair in a short phrase before you read the options, then test each option against that phrase.

Here the phrase is simple: antonyms. Cessation is an ending and beginning is a start, so the answer has to be a clean pair of opposites too.

The bracketed note removes the escape routes — letter counts, vowel counts — which leaves meaning as the only ground the answer can stand on.

All three wrong options are related pairs without being opposite pairs. That is how SSC separates candidates who name the relation from candidates who only feel that two words belong together.

Key facts

Cessation means a stopping or discontinuation, from the verb cease.
The paper prints miniscule, a common variant of minuscule, which means very small.
Enormous and miniscule are opposites of size, the same shape of relation as an end set against a start.

Study next

Antonym pairs in word analogies, told apart from near-synonym pairsNaming the relation as a first step, before any option is readDegree pairs such as warm and hot, which look like antonyms and are not

Common traps

Choosing a pair that is merely related, such as a cause set beside its effect.
Reading Plutonic : Abyssal as height against depth when both words point downward.
Being put off by the paper's spelling of miniscule and rejecting the right option because of it.

SSC keeps this wording and its bracketed note fixed and changes only the relation. Reasoning Q.16 of this paper pairs Scissors with Paper, 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.5 pairs Calcium with Osteomalacia, and 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.4 pairs Control with Domination — three different relations under one stem.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.