SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 17 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.

Parts of a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the parts in the correct order to form a meaningful sentence. (A) and was searching for them (B) the grandmother couldn’t find (C) all around the house (D) placed them on her head (E) her spectacles because she had

(a)BADEC
(b)CABED
(c)BEDAC
(d)ADBEC

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Part (B) is the only piece carrying a subject with a finite verb — "the grandmother couldn't find" — so the sentence has to open there.

"couldn't find" needs an object, and (E) supplies it: "her spectacles because she had".

(E) ends on the bare auxiliary had, which demands a past participle, and (D) "placed them on her head" is the part that begins with one.

(A) "and was searching for them" then joins on, and (C) "all around the house" completes searching. B-E-D-A-C reads straight through, which is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
BADEC — BADEC puts (A) straight after (B), leaving "couldn't find" with no object, and it ends the chain on "she had all around the house" — a bare auxiliary with no past participle after it.
(b)
CABED — CABED opens on the adverbial "all around the house" followed by "and", so the sentence begins with a coordinator and reaches no subject until the third part.
(d)
ADBEC — ADBEC also opens on "and", which needs a preceding clause to join, and it strands "because she had" before "all around the house", leaving the past perfect without its participle.

Concept

A para-jumble is solved by grammatical hooks, not by the story.

Find the opener first: the part with a subject and a finite verb, and no coordinator in front of it. Only (B) qualifies here.

Then follow the incomplete edges. A transitive verb reaches forward for its object, a bare "had" reaches forward for a past participle, and an adverbial phrase attaches backwards to a verb. Each hook fixes one join, and the order falls out.

The options do half the work if you test the opener first.

Two of the four begin with a part that cannot open a sentence, so they go at once, and the remaining pair is separated by a single question: where does the dangling "because she had" land?

Key facts

The opening part of a jumbled sentence normally carries the subject and a finite verb.
A bare auxiliary had at the end of a part must be followed by a past participle.
A part beginning with and cannot open a sentence, because a coordinator needs a clause before it.
Search for takes the thing sought, and an adverbial such as all around the house attaches to the verb.

Study next

Para-jumbles solved by grammatical hooks rather than by narrative orderPast perfect: had plus a past participle, and how the auxiliary is shared across coordinated verbsCoordination with and, and which verb forms may be joined by it

Common traps

Ordering the parts by the story you imagine instead of by the grammar
Putting (A) next to (B), which leaves couldn't find without an object
Ending the sentence on because she had, with no participle left to follow it

The parts are cut so that the joins are decidable by grammar — a bare auxiliary, an objectless verb, a loose adverbial — rather than by guessing the sense.

A four-part jumble is also asked in this paper at English Q.1, where the parts are labelled P to S rather than A to E.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.