SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 10 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 verb / verb phrase to fill in the blank. The team ________________ the championship before their star player got injured.

(a)has won
(b)was won
(c)win
(d)had won

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Two past events sit in one sentence. The injury is reported in the simple past — got injured — and the win happened before it.

English marks the earlier of two past events with the past perfect: had + past participle.

Timeline: had won (first) → got injured (second). Only option (d) supplies an active past-perfect form.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
has won — Has won is present perfect, which ties an action to the present moment. It cannot stand beside a finished past clause like got injured, and nothing here points at present time.
(b)
was won — Was won is passive, but the blank is still followed by its object, the championship. A passive verb takes no direct object, so the sentence breaks.
(c)
win — Win is present tense in a sentence whose other verb, got injured, is past. The two clauses would sit in different times for no reason.

Concept

The past perfect exists to order two past events. The earlier one takes had + past participle; the later one stays in the simple past.

The evidence is never the blank itself — it is the verb you are already given. Find it (got injured), place it on a timeline, then choose the form that sits correctly beside it.

In ordinary English before already fixes the order, so a simple past — the team won the championship before... — is also natural. The paper offers no simple-past active option, so had won is the only tensed active form available.

Key facts

Past perfect is had + past participle, used for the earlier of two past events.
The later event in such a sentence stays in the simple past — here, got injured.
Present perfect (has won) is not used alongside a finished past-time clause.

Study next

Past perfect versus simple past with before, after and by the timeActive and passive pairs of the same tense, and where the object goesTime markers that block the present perfect: yesterday, last year, ago

Common traps

Choosing has won because the win feels recent, in a sentence that is entirely past
Reading was won as a past form without noticing it is passive and the object is still there

One blank, four verb forms — and the evidence sits outside the blank. Here it is the tense of got injured.

At 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.6 the evidence is a duration phrase instead — 'for the past two months' → have been renovating.
At 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.8 it is the result clause 'and received a high score' → studied.

Find the evidence before you read the options, and do not assume it will be a tense.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.