SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · 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 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 synonym of the bracketed word in the following sentence to fill in the blank. The elaborate syllabi had to be ________(summarised) to make a presentation in the UGC assessment meeting.

(a)recapitulated
(b)expanded
(c)prolonged
(d)lengthened

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The bracketed cue is summarised, so the blank needs a verb meaning to state again in brief.

recapitulate is exactly that: from Latin capitulum, a chapter heading, so to recapitulate is to run back over the main headings.

The other three all mean to make longer, and three options cannot share one meaning and all be right. Only option (a) moves in the direction the sentence needs.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
expanded — expanded means made larger or set out in fuller detail, which is the reverse of summarising. It would leave the syllabi longer than they already were.
(c)
prolonged — prolonged stretches something in time, as in a prolonged meeting. It is about duration rather than the length of a document, and it cannot mean shortening.
(d)
lengthened — lengthened means made longer in extent. Like expanded and prolonged it runs the wrong way, when the sentence has already called the syllabi elaborate.

Concept

A synonym-in-context item prints the intended meaning in brackets, so vocabulary is only half the task. The other half is direction.

Read what the sentence needs to happen: elaborate syllabi have to fit a presentation, so they must get shorter.

recapitulate means to restate the main points concisely. Its neighbours differ in nuance — summarise compresses, abridge cuts a text down, condense packs the same matter into less space, paraphrase restates without necessarily shortening.

The blank sits in a passive frame, had to be ____, so every option is offered as a past participle and the grammar cannot separate them. Only the meaning can.

Key facts

recapitulate comes from Latin capitulum, a chapter heading, and means to go back over the main points.
expanded, prolonged and lengthened all move towards greater length, so none of them can render summarised.
paraphrase restates in other words without necessarily shortening, unlike summarise.

Study next

Verbs of shortening (abridge, condense, curtail, truncate)Verbs of lengthening (protract, extend, prolong, elaborate)Passive frames that hide the form clue (had to be, is being, will be)

Common traps

Ignoring the bracketed cue and choosing on how the sentence sounds.
Treating prolonged and lengthened as different enough that one of them might still fit.
Reading recapitulated as merely repeat and rejecting it as too weak.

SSC prints the intended meaning in brackets beside the blank, so this is a synonym test wearing a fill-in-the-blank coat. The same shift asks the bare synonym form at English Q.16 (Taut) and Q.17 (Confiscate).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.