SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 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 underlined idiom in the following sentence. Rahul won the extempore competition. He is lucky to be blessed with the gift of the gab.

(a)A lucky person
(b)An honest person
(c)A talent for speaking
(d)A big surprise

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The idiom is the gift of the gab, and gab means talk or chatter. To have the gift of the gab is to be a fluent, persuasive talker, which is option (c), a talent for speaking.

The sentence supports it. Rahul won an extempore competition, and extempore means speaking without preparation, so the idiom is explaining a speaking win.

The word lucky in the sentence belongs to Rahul, not to the idiom. That is the whole of the trap in option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
A lucky person — Lifted straight from the sentence's own words, He is lucky to be blessed with. The luck is the speaker's comment on Rahul; the idiom itself is about fluency.
(b)
An honest person — Honest is about truth-telling, not fluency. Someone with the gift of the gab can talk anyone round without being honest at all.
(d)
A big surprise — This reads gift as a present and stops there. In the idiom gift means a natural talent, the sense we use in a gifted singer.

Concept

An idiom item is settled by the idiom, not by the sentence wrapped around it. The sentence is there to make the idiom natural, and often to plant a decoy.

Gab is an old word for chatter, related to gabble. The gift of the gab therefore means a natural fluency in speech, usually with a hint that the speaker can talk others round.

Extempore, in the same sentence, means done or spoken without preparation. It is worth knowing in its own right and it points the same way as the idiom.

One option here is assembled from words the sentence already contains. When an option merely echoes something you can see on the page, treat it as suspect rather than as confirmed.

Key facts

The gift of the gab means a natural talent for fluent, persuasive speech.
Gab is an old word for chatter, related to gabble.
Extempore means spoken or done without preparation.

Study next

Idioms about speech: beat about the bush, talk shop, hold your tongueIdioms where gift or blessing means a talent rather than a presentSpotting the distractor assembled from the sentence's own vocabulary

Common traps

Choosing a lucky person because the sentence says lucky a few words earlier.
Reading gift literally as a present, which points at a big surprise.
Taking the idiom as praise of character when it is praise of ability.

SSC underlines the idiom inside a full sentence rather than giving it bare — also asked 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 (a straight shooter), 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5 (a fish out of water) and 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 (kept her cards close to her chest).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.