SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 3 of 99

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 underlined group of words. We, as human beings, have a tendency of believing in the things that can be seen and touched.

(a)tangible
(b)inexpressible
(c)impalpable
(d)spiritual

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The underlined group is that can be seen and touched — perceivable by the senses, physically there.

Tangible means precisely able to be touched, and so real and material. It comes from Latin tangere, to touch, the root behind tactile, contact and intact.

Substituted in, it reads: a tendency of believing in things that are tangible → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
inexpressible — Inexpressible means unable to be put into words. It is about language, not about what the senses can reach.
(c)
impalpable — Impalpable means not able to be touched or grasped. The prefix im- reverses the sense, so this is the opposite of what the underlined words say.
(d)
spiritual — Spiritual means relating to the spirit or to religion, which is the pole furthest from something you can see and touch.

Concept

One-word substitution asks for the single word that carries a whole phrase's meaning, with nothing added and nothing lost.

The family to know here is built on touch. Tangible and palpable mean touchable; intangible and impalpable are their negatives.

SSC's usual move is to place a negative-prefix member of the same family in the options, so a candidate who recognises only the root walks into it.

Tangible has a second, everyday sense — clear and definite, as in tangible progress. The stem uses the literal sense, which is what makes it the exact substitute here.

Key facts

Tangible means able to be touched, from Latin tangere, to touch.
Impalpable means not able to be touched or perceived by touch.
Intangible is the standard antonym of tangible.

Study next

Negative prefixes im-, in-, il-, ir- and the words they reverseWord families built on Latin tangere: tactile, contact, intact, contagiousOne-word substitutes for perception: audible, visible, legible, edible

Common traps

Reading impalpable as an intensified palpable instead of its negative.
Choosing spiritual because the stem opens with as human beings.
Answering from the second half of the phrase only, and forgetting that seen must fit too.

SSC sets one-word substitution both as a bare phrase and, as here, with the group of words underlined inside a sentence. The underlined-group version is also asked at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.7 (proficient in speaking many languages).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.