SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 given group of words. One who eats human flesh.

(a)Scavengers
(b)Omnivores
(c)Cannibal
(d)Herbivores

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The stem defines a person: one who eats human flesh. Cannibal is that word, and it is the single singular noun on offer.

The other three name feeding categories from biology and are all printed as plurals, which already mismatches the one who of the stem.

Cannibal is also the exact fit rather than a near one — a human being who eats human flesh. Option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Scavengers — Scavengers feed on carrion and refuse, as vultures and hyenas do. The stem says nothing about dead or decaying matter, and it asks for one person.
(b)
Omnivores — Omnivores eat both plant and animal food. That covers most human beings, so it does not single out the eating of human flesh.
(d)
Herbivores — Herbivores eat plants only, which reverses the stem rather than matching it. It is also plural, where one who eats calls for a singular noun.

Concept

One-word substitution rewards two habits.

First, match the number and category of the stem. One who eats is a singular human agent, so a plural biology term is suspect before you have weighed its meaning at all.

Second, read the definition for its narrowest element. The narrow element here is human flesh, not eating in general, so a broad diet word cannot win however true it may be of people.

Cannibal carries both — a person, and specifically one who eats the flesh of his own kind. The word came into English from Spanish Canibales, a name for the Carib people of the West Indies.

In biology cannibalism means eating a member of one's own species, so the word applies to animals too. The stem restricts it to human flesh, and the keyed option matches that narrower reading.

Key facts

A cannibal is a person who eats human flesh.
Cannibalism in biology is the eating of a member of one's own species.
Scavengers feed on dead or decaying matter, as vultures and hyenas do.
Omnivores eat both plants and animals, while herbivores eat plants only.

Study next

One-word substitutes for people defined by what they eat: cannibal, gourmand, glutton, teetotallerFeeding categories in biology: carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, detritivoreMatching the number and person of the stem before weighing meaning

Common traps

Picking omnivores because human beings really are omnivores, and ignoring that the stem names human flesh
Overlooking that three options are plural while the stem says one who

SSC words this definition in more than one way and keys the same answer each time. It appears as one who eats the flesh of his own species 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.3, keyed Cannibal.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.