SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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 that can substitute the underlined word in the given sentence. Verity is a good virtue for human life.

(a)Truth
(b)Information
(c)Knowledge
(d)Cooperation

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Verity means truth — a true principle, or truthfulness as a quality. It carries Latin verus, 'true', the root behind verify, veracity and verdict.

The sentence calls verity a virtue, and truthfulness is one. Substituting option (a) leaves the sentence standing unchanged in sense: 'Truth is a good virtue for human life.'

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Information — Information is facts communicated about something. Information can be false and still be information, so it cannot replace a word whose whole content is truthfulness.
(c)
Knowledge — Knowledge is what a person has learnt or understands. It is near verity only in belonging to the same broad area — verity names the truth of a thing, not anyone's grasp of it.
(d)
Cooperation — Cooperation is working together. It is genuinely a virtue, which is what makes it tempting after the word 'virtue' in the sentence, but it has no link to the meaning of verity.

Concept

This item tests a word you may not know, and the way in is the root. Verity carries Latin verus, 'true', and the family is wide enough that one member is usually familiar: verify, verification, veracity, verdict, and very, which once meant 'truly'.

Once the root is placed, the sentence finishes the job. A substitution has to fit the grammar as well as the sense — verity is an abstract, uncountable noun used without an article, and Truth behaves the same way in that slot.

'Verity is a good virtue' is redundant English, since a virtue is good by definition, but that is the paper's own wording and the item does not turn on it. Answer the substitution as asked.

Key facts

Verity means truth, or a statement that is true.
The Latin root verus, meaning true, gives verify, veracity, verdict and very.
Veracity describes a person's truthfulness, while verity names the truth of a thing.

Study next

The Latin root verus and its English familyAbstract nouns as substitutions: verity, probity, candourSubstitution items where the option must match the grammar of the original

Common traps

Choosing Cooperation because the sentence says virtue and cooperation is one.
Confusing verity with variety — the two look alike and mean nothing alike.
Treating Knowledge as close enough, when a person can know a falsehood.

The substitution stem gives a sentence with one word underlined and four candidate replacements, so the test is meaning plus fit in the slot.

It set 'juvenile' → young at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, EC Q16, 'intense' → powerful at 18 Sep 2024, 09:00, EC Q8, and 'ability' → aptitude at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, EC Q20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.