SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 6 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 meaning of the underlined idiom. Fatima was at her wits’ end trying to decide on a serene place for spending the holidays in.

(a)So worried, confused or annoyed that she became unconscious
(b)So calm and composed that she knows what to do next
(c)So worried, confused or annoyed that she does not know what to do next
(d)So worried, confused or annoyed that she insulted others for no reason

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The idiom is at one's wits' end — the point at which your wits, your mental resources, have run out.

It describes someone so worried, confused or exasperated that no next step occurs to them. The sentence supports exactly that: Fatima is trying to decide on a place and cannot settle it.

The idiom has two halves — the distress, and the blank where the decision should be. Option (c) is the only choice that keeps both.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
So worried, confused or annoyed that she became unconscious — The idiom stops at not knowing what to do. It never reaches physical collapse, and this option bolts unconsciousness onto the right emotion.
(b)
So calm and composed that she knows what to do next — This reverses the idiom. Being at your wits' end is the state of not coping, so 'calm and composed' and 'knows what to do' are both the opposite of what the phrase says.
(d)
So worried, confused or annoyed that she insulted others for no reason — The distress is right, but insulting others is an added action the idiom does not carry. Wits' end names an internal deadlock, not an outburst.

Concept

Wits here means mental faculties — the same wits as in 'keep your wits about you'. To be at your wits' end is to have used them up and arrived at the end of them.

So the phrase carries two things, and a correct option must show both: a state of distress, and the absence of any further course of action.

The decoys are made by keeping one half and altering the other. Twice the distress is kept and the consequence is swapped for something the idiom never says, and once the whole meaning is turned around.

The apostrophe goes after wits — wits' end — because the wits are plural and possessive. The paper prints it that way in the underlined segment.

Key facts

At one's wits' end means so worried or confused that you cannot think what to do next.
Wits in this idiom means mental faculties, as in 'keep your wits about you'.
The phrase is written wits' end, with the apostrophe after the plural noun wits.

Study next

Idioms built on the word end: at the end of one's tether, at a loose endIdioms about mental state: keep your wits about you, out of one's depthIdiom items where the meaning is given and the phrase has to be chosen

Common traps

Choosing the longer option because it adds a dramatic consequence the idiom never states.
Missing that one option reuses the idiom's own vocabulary while reversing its sense.

SSC asks idioms both as a bare phrase and, as here, underlined inside a sentence. The sentence-underlined form is also used on 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.9 ('a straight shooter').
This same shift runs the reverse direction at English Q.3, which supplies the meaning — to steal from a shop — and asks for the idiom.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.