SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 24 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.

In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. We naturally seek the company of those whose (1) _________ are the same as our own. Fools do not like the (2) _________ of wise men, and wise men avoid fools. Serious-minded people do not find much in common with (3) _________ folk, and vice versa. Sinners feel uncomfortable with (4) _________ and do not seek their company. We can, therefore, as a rule, judge a man’s (5) _________ by the company he keeps.

Select the most appropriate option to fill in blank number 4.

(a)rowdy
(b)commoners
(c)saints
(d)knave

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The sentence is 'Sinners feel uncomfortable with (4) _________ and do not seek their company.'

their points back at the blank, so the blank has to name a plural group of people. That rules out anything singular before meaning is weighed.

The passage then supplies the meaning. It runs on opposed pairs, and the group sinners avoid is their opposite: saints → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
rowdy — Rowdy gives 'their' nothing plural to point back at: as an adjective it names no group, and as a noun (a rowdy, plural rowdies) it is singular. It also breaks the passage's pattern of opposites.
(b)
commoners — Commoners is plural, but it divides people by rank. The pairs this passage sets up — fools and wise men, serious and frivolous folk — divide them by character.
(d)
knave — Knave means a dishonourable man and is singular, leaving 'their' stranded. A knave also belongs among the sinners rather than opposite them.

Concept

Two checks settle this blank, and they agree.

Grammar: the clause goes on 'and do not seek their company', and 'their' can only refer back to the people named in the blank. A singular noun or a bare adjective leaves that pronoun with no antecedent.

Sense: the passage argues by opposites. Fools stand against wise men, serious-minded people against frivolous folk, and sinners against saints.

Nothing in this sentence names the moral opposite outright. You have to carry the passage's pattern into it, which is what a cloze tests beyond vocabulary.

Key facts

A pronoun such as their needs a plural antecedent, which the blank has to supply.
Knave means a dishonourable or deceitful man and is singular.
Saint is the standard counterpart of sinner in English usage.

Study next

Pronoun-antecedent agreement used as a gap-fill clueAntonym pairs with a moral charge: saint and sinner, virtue and viceUsing a passage's own pattern to fill a blank the sentence does not define

Common traps

Choosing knave because it sounds archaic and matches the tone of the passage.
Overlooking 'their', which rules out every singular option on its own.
Reading commoners as an opposite of sinners because both words name groups.

This blank rewards reading Q.21 to Q.25 as one passage, because the pattern that decides it was set up two sentences earlier.

The same five-blank cloze runs at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.21 to Q.25 and 26 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.21 to Q.25.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

In the following passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank. We naturally seek the company of those whose (1) _________ are the same as our own. Fools do not like the (2) _________ of wise men, and wise men avoid fools. Serious-minded people do not find much in common with (3) _________ folk, and vice versa. Sinners feel uncomfortable with (4) _________ and do not seek their company. We can, therefore, as a rule, judge a man’s (5) _________ by the company he keeps.