SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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 option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words Anything pertaining to cats

(a)Feline
(b)Canine
(c)Bovine
(d)Taurine

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Feline is the adjective for cats, from Latin felis, a cat. "Anything pertaining to cats" is the dictionary gloss of feline, so option (a) matches the given phrase word for word.

The whole set is built on one pattern — a Latin animal name plus the ending -ine — so all four are real words. Only the animal changes, and only one of them is the cat.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Canine — Canine belongs to dogs, from Latin canis. It is also the name of the pointed tooth next to the incisors, which is where the word is met most often.
(c)
Bovine — Bovine belongs to cattle, from Latin bos, bovis, an ox or cow. It also describes a slow, placid manner, and neither sense reaches cats.
(d)
Taurine — Taurine belongs to bulls, from Latin taurus — the same root as the zodiac sign Taurus. Its unfamiliarity is the whole of its appeal as a distractor.

Concept

This item belongs to a closed family: Latin animal names carrying the adjective ending -ine, meaning of the nature of. Learn the block and a whole class of questions becomes free.

feline for cats, canine for dogs, bovine for cattle, taurine for bulls
equine for horses, porcine for pigs, ovine for sheep, piscine for fish
ursine for bears, vulpine for foxes, leonine for lions, aquiline for eagles

Feline also works as a noun, meaning a member of the cat family. The question asks for anything pertaining to cats, which the adjective covers, so the double duty changes nothing here.

Key facts

Feline means of or relating to cats, from Latin felis.
Canine is dogs, bovine is cattle, taurine is bulls.
The ending -ine attaches to a Latin animal name and means of the nature of that animal.

Study next

The rest of the -ine animal adjectives: equine, porcine, ovine, piscine, ursine, vulpinePhobia one-word substitutes, another closed family SSC draws onMania one-word substitutes, built the same way on a Greek stem

Common traps

Reading taurine as some general animal word because it is the least familiar of the four.
Mixing canine and feline while working fast, since both are everyday words.
Assuming the least familiar option must be right — taurine is a real word, just for bulls.

The one-word-substitute frame repeats with a different family underneath. It runs on power words at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.20 (a person who has supreme power or authority, keyed Sovereign).

It runs on the Greek stems too — 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.12 (fear of closed spaces, keyed Claustrophobia) and 9 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.6 (morbid compulsion to consume alcohol continuously, keyed Dipsomania).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.