SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 1 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 most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. Ranveer never has the habit of making a beeline for his academic activities.

(a)behaving abnormally
(b)immediately responding to things
(c)going straight and quick
(d)selecting inconsiderately

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The tested phrase is make a beeline for, which means to head straight and fast towards something, by the shortest route.

The sentence says Ranveer never does this for his academic activities, so the replacement must describe movement towards a target, not a manner of behaving.

Option (c), going straight and quick, is the dictionary sense, and it is the reading that leaves the preposition for doing its job.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
behaving abnormally — Beeline carries no sense of odd or erratic behaviour. Put this in and the sentence claims Ranveer never behaves abnormally for his studies, which is not what the idiom says.
(b)
immediately responding to things — This shifts the phrase to speed of reaction. A beeline is about direction as much as speed — you make one towards a place or a goal, not in reply to something.
(d)
selecting inconsiderately — Nothing in the idiom concerns choosing. A beeline is movement towards a target, not a judgement about how carefully somebody picks.

Concept

SSC's substitution items give you an idiom inside a sentence and ask for a paraphrase that could replace it word for word.

Two tests decide them. Does the replacement mean the same thing? And does the sentence still hold together once you drop it in, especially the preposition that follows?

Make a beeline for wants a destination, so any option about attitude or manner fails the second test even before you argue about meaning.

The printed sentence is stilted — 'never has the habit of making a beeline' is unusual English — but your job is to replace the underlined segment, not to repair the sentence.

Key facts

Make a beeline for = go straight and fast towards something, by the most direct route.
The idiom normally takes the preposition for, which is why a valid substitute must still allow a destination.
The image behind the phrase is a bee flying directly back to its hive.

Study next

Idioms that must keep the preposition after them, such as make a beeline **for** and take issue **with**Substitution items whose wrong options paraphrase the manner instead of the meaning

Common traps

Reading 'beeline' as 'busy as a bee' and choosing an option about behaviour
Ignoring the preposition for, which the replacement still has to fit

SSC runs idioms both ways. Sometimes it underlines the idiom inside a sentence and asks what it means, as the same paper does at English Q.6 with the tip of the iceberg.

Sometimes it prints the idiom bare, as at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.10 with to read between the lines.

The substitute-the-underlined-segment shell returns at English Q.16 and Q.20 of this paper, there testing a preposition and a comparative rather than an idiom. The bracketed-idiom form is used on 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.5.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.