SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 11 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 5 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.

Parts of a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the parts in the correct order to form a meaningful sentence. (O) as it was the last one of the evening (P) the city bus was overcrowded (Q) and this gave an opportunity (R) to the pickpockets (S) to try their skill

(a)PSORQ
(b)SRPOQ
(c)SROPQ
(d)POQRS

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Only one part can open the sentence: (P) 'the city bus was overcrowded' is the sole independent clause, with a subject and a finite verb.

(O) 'as it was the last one of the evening' gives the reason for that overcrowding, so it follows.

(Q) 'and this gave an opportunity' picks the situation up with this; (R) names who received the opportunity and (S) says what it was for.

Order: P–O–Q–R–S.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
PSORQ — PSORQ ends on (Q) 'and this gave an opportunity', which leaves the sentence unfinished — and it puts 'to try their skill' on the page before the pickpockets have been mentioned.
(b)
SRPOQ — SRPOQ begins with (S) 'to try their skill', a bare infinitive phrase with nothing to attach to. No sentence can open on a fragment of that shape.
(c)
SROPQ — SROPQ has the same illegal opening as (b) and, like (a), closes on 'and this gave an opportunity' — leaving the opportunity with neither a recipient nor a purpose.

Concept

Solve sentence jumbles by structure, not story. Find the independent clause first — subject plus finite verb — because only that can start the sentence.

Here (O) is subordinate ('as'), (Q) opens with the connector 'and', (R) is a prepositional phrase and (S) an infinitive phrase. Only (P) qualifies.

Then chain each fragment to what it depends on: 'this' points back to the overcrowding, 'to the pickpockets' answers 'opportunity to whom', and 'to try their skill' answers 'opportunity to do what'.

Two options open with P and two with S, so rejecting the fragment opening halves the paper in one step.

The tie between (a) and (d) is then broken by the ending: only (d) closes on a complete thought.

Key facts

A sentence cannot begin with a part introduced by 'and' or 'as', or with a bare infinitive such as 'to try'.
A pronoun like this must come after the idea it refers back to.
'Opportunity' here takes a recipient ('to the pickpockets') and then a purpose ('to try their skill').

Study next

Telling independent from subordinate clauses inside jumbled partsPronoun-antecedent links as the ordering clue for the middle partsLegal sentence openers: articles, proper nouns, subject pronouns, time phrases

Common traps

Picking (a) because it also starts with P — check the last part as well.
Ordering the parts by narrative feel instead of by grammar.

This shift sets the jumble twice more: English Q.3 (9 Sep 2024, 12:30) scrambles five lettered parts of one sentence, and English Q.9 scrambles four whole sentences into a paragraph. The first-part test opens all three.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.