SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 25 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 5.

(a)heirloom
(b)legacy
(c)futurities
(d)character

Answer

Why

Correct — D. We can, therefore, as a rule marks a conclusion, so the blank names whatever the passage has been measuring all along.

It has sorted people by the kind of people they are — fools and wise men, serious and frivolous, sinners and saints. What the company you keep reveals is character → option (d).

The sentence closes on 'by the company he keeps', the proverb the whole paragraph has been building towards.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
heirloom — Heirloom is a valuable object handed down in a family. It is a thing you inherit, and no one judges it from the friends you choose.
(b)
legacy — Legacy is what a person leaves behind them. The passage judges a man in the present, from the company he keeps now.
(c)
futurities — Futurities means future events or things still to come. The company a man keeps is evidence about what he is, not a forecast of what will happen.

Concept

The last sentence of this passage carries its point, and the signposts announce it: therefore and as a rule introduce a conclusion drawn from what came before.

So do not judge this blank on its own sentence. Ask what the four earlier sentences have been measuring.

They sort people by what sort of people they are — wise or foolish, serious or frivolous, sinful or saintly. The word for that is character.

Heirloom, legacy and futurities all concern time: what is handed down, what is left behind, what is still to come. The passage concerns the man as he is now, and that is what separates the three from the answer.

Key facts

Character means the mental and moral qualities that make a person who they are.
Legacy is what a person leaves behind after their lifetime, such as money, property or reputation.
Therefore and as a rule signal a general conclusion drawn from the statements before it.

Study next

Conclusion markers: therefore, thus, hence, as a rule, on the wholeDistinguishing character, reputation, personality and temperamentAnswering the closing blank of a cloze from the argument rather than the sentence

Common traps

Choosing legacy because a life also sounds like something judged by what it leaves.
Answering the final blank without going back to the first sentence.
Treating futurities as a grand plural of future and assuming grand must be right.

The closing blank is where a cloze asks whether you read the passage or only the sentence, since the four earlier blanks supply the evidence for this one.

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.