SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 18 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. Select the option that arranges the parts in the correct sequence to form a meaningful sentence. (P) hard work and perseverance (Q) no matter how difficult (O) lead to success (R) the journey may seem

(a)ORQP
(b)RPQO
(c)POQR
(d)RPOQ

Answer

Why

Correct — C. (P) hard work and perseverance is a subject with no verb, and (O) lead to success is the verb it needs — plural, because two nouns joined by 'and' take a plural verb.

(Q) no matter how difficult is a concessive opener that cannot stand alone. It has to be closed by a clause, and (R) the journey may seem is that clause: 'no matter how difficult the journey may seem'.

Main clause first, concession after — P, O, Q, R, which is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
ORQP — Opens on the bare verb phrase lead to success, so the sentence has no subject, and it strands 'hard work and perseverance' at the end with no verb to govern it.
(b)
RPQO — Puts (P) hard work and perseverance straight after 'the journey may seem', which reads as 'the journey may seem hard work and perseverance', and it splits 'no matter how difficult' from the clause it introduces.
(d)
RPOQ — Leaves (Q) no matter how difficult dangling at the very end with nothing to complete it. A concessive opener must be followed by its clause, not stranded after one.

Concept

A part-jumble is settled by grammar, not by ear. Two tests do most of the work.

First, find the fragment that can be the subject and the fragment carrying the finite verb. They sit together in that order and they agree in number.

Second, find any subordinator — 'no matter how', 'although', 'because', 'while'. A subordinator and the clause it governs cannot be separated, so those two fragments are adjacent.

Here the subject-verb pair is P then O, and the subordinated pair is Q then R.

Both remaining orders that begin with (R) fail for the same reason: they break the Q-then-R join. Once you see that 'no matter how difficult' must be immediately followed by 'the journey may seem', only one of the four printed orders survives.

Key facts

'No matter how' introduces a concessive clause shaped: no matter how + adjective + subject + verb, as in 'no matter how difficult the journey may seem'.
Two nouns joined by 'and' take a plural verb, which is why the fragment reads 'lead to success' and not 'leads to success'.
A concessive clause cannot stand as a sentence on its own, while the main clause it attaches to can.

Study next

Concessive connectors: no matter how, however, although, even thoughSubject-verb agreement when two nouns are joined by 'and'Anchoring part-jumbles on the fragment that carries the finite verb

Common traps

Opening with (R) because 'the journey may seem' sounds like a natural sentence start, when it is the tail of the concession.
Reading 'lead to success' as an infinitive and hunting for a 'to' in front of it, when it is the finite verb of the sentence.

SSC prints four labelled fragments and four orderings, so the work is deciding which two fragments must be adjacent.

The same fragment types — a subject, its plural verb and a two-part subordinate clause — are set again in English Q.15 asked 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, where the keyed order puts the subordinate clause first.

At English Q.7 asked 10 Sep 2024, 16:00 the split runs differently — 'technology has revolutionised' carries subject and verb in one fragment, and the second half is a coordinated clause — but the same adjacency test decides it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.