SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 14 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.

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. The soldier struck the enemy with the short sword fixed onto the end of the gun.

(a)Baron
(b)Bayonet
(c)Baton
(d)Bigot

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The underlined group is the short sword fixed onto the end of the gun, and the single word for that is bayonet.

A bayonet is a blade made to be fixed to the muzzle of a rifle so the weapon can still be used at close quarters. Every element of the phrase is inside that definition: short blade, fixed on, end of the gun.

Option (b) is the choice that names a blade carried on a firearm, so it replaces the phrase exactly.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Baron — A baron is a person, not a weapon. The word names a rank of nobility, and nothing in the underlined phrase points to a title or to a man.
(c)
Baton — A baton is carried, not fixed. It is a short stick — a relay runner's, a conductor's, a police officer's — with no blade and no attachment to a gun.
(d)
Bigot — A bigot is intolerant, not sharp. The word describes a person who refuses to accept opinions or beliefs unlike their own, which this sentence never touches.

Concept

One-word-substitute items are decided by the defining features of the phrase, not by its general subject matter. List those features before you look down at the options.

Here they are three: it is a blade, it is short, and it is fixed to the end of a gun. A word that misses even one of them is out.

All four options open with b, which is how the set is built. Eliminate on meaning, never on the look or the sound of the word.

The sentence describes an action — 'struck the enemy with...' — but the substitution replaces the thing, not the striking. Read the boundary of the underlined group carefully: it is the noun phrase only.

Key facts

A bayonet is a blade designed to be fixed to the muzzle of a rifle for close combat.
A baron is a rank of nobility.
A baton is a short stick, carried by a relay runner, a conductor or a police officer.
A bigot is a person intolerant of opinions and beliefs other than their own.

Study next

One-word substitutes drawn from military vocabulary, such as arsenal, garrison and armisticeLook-alike words separated only by meaning, such as baron and barrenListing a phrase's defining features before reading the options

Common traps

Picking 'baton' because it too is something a person strikes with.
Choosing on the shape of the word when every option begins with the same letter.
Replacing more of the sentence than is underlined, so the substitute no longer fits grammatically.

The wrapper comes in two forms. The phrase is underlined inside a sentence, as here and at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.7 ('proficient in speaking many languages' becomes multilingual).

Or the phrase stands on its own line, as at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.9 ('A person who likes to argue about anything' becomes contentious) and 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.2 ('An order of law requiring people to remain indoors' becomes curfew).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.