SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 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 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.

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. One who does not show response to good or bad

(a)Cynic
(b)Phobic
(c)Sceptic
(d)Stoic

Answer

Why

Correct — D. A stoic is a person who stays unmoved by pleasure or pain, taking good fortune and bad without visible reaction.

That matches both halves of the definition: the response is not shown, and it is withheld towards good or bad alike.

The word comes from Stoicism, the Greek school that taught endurance of both; in ordinary English it now names the impassive person rather than a follower of the doctrine — option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Cynic — A cynic distrusts other people's motives, holding that they act from self-interest. That is a view about others, not an absence of reaction to one's own fortune.
(b)
Phobic — Phobic describes an intense, irrational fear of a particular thing. It names a reaction, and a strong one — the opposite of showing none.
(c)
Sceptic — A sceptic withholds belief until something is proved. That is doubt about what is true, not indifference to good or bad fortune.

Concept

One-word substitutes are decided on the exact scope of the definition, and this one has two load-bearing parts.

First, the response is withheld — does not show response. Second, it is withheld in both directions — to good or bad.

Cynic, sceptic and phobic each name a stance towards something specific: motives, claims, a feared object. Each of those is a reaction, not the absence of one. Only stoic is defined by the reaction being held back, and held back both ways at once.

Key facts

Stoic: a person who remains unaffected by pleasure or pain and shows little emotion.
The word comes from the Stoic school of Greek philosophy.
Cynic and sceptic are not interchangeable: a cynic distrusts motives, a sceptic doubts claims until they are proved.
Phobic relates to phobia, an intense and irrational fear.

Study next

Character one-word substitutes: misanthrope, altruist, egotist, philanthropistCynic against sceptic against pessimistThe -phile and -phobe families

Common traps

Reading does not show response as does not believe, and picking sceptic
Assuming the answer must be negative in tone because the definition is phrased negatively

This is the only one-word substitute among the 25 English items in this shift, but the deciding skill — separating near-neighbours from one semantic family — is what the vocabulary items use too.

For example, Berserk against Stubborn, Demented, Absurd and Lazy (also asked 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.18).

Read the definition's qualifiers. Here does not show response is the phrase that rules out the three belief words.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.