SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 9 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.

Which of the following Illustrations shows the mitochondrion’s structural details?

(a)c
(b)a
(c)b
(d)d

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The keyed option reads 'b', and illustration b is the bean-shaped body cut open to show a folded inner membrane sitting inside a smooth outer one — the cristae of a mitochondrion.

Nothing else in the strip is a cell structure. Illustration a is a flat sheet of evenly spaced discs, illustration c is a brick wall and illustration d is a ball-and-stick lattice.

The mitochondrion is illustration b, and option (c) is the one that names it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
c — This option names illustration c, a brick wall. It is masonry, not biology — nothing in it is membrane-bound.
(b)
a — This option names illustration a, a flat green field of evenly spaced blue discs. It is a repeating surface pattern with no double membrane and no internal folds.
(d)
d — This option names illustration d, a ball-and-stick lattice of atoms. That is a crystal or molecular model and belongs to a chemistry question.

Concept

The mitochondrion is drawn the same way in every textbook, and the drawing is the answer.

It has a double membrane. The outer membrane is smooth. The inner one is thrown into deep folds called cristae, which multiply the surface available for the reactions of respiration, and the space they project into is the matrix.

That silhouette — a bean or sausage shape, sliced open to show shelved folds — is what illustration b shows.

Two labelling systems are in play. The option letters run (a) to (d) down the answer list, while the illustration letters a to d run left to right across the image. The key is option (c), which points at illustration b.

Key facts

A mitochondrion has two membranes, a smooth outer one and an inner one folded into cristae.
The cristae enclose the matrix and carry the reactions that release energy, which is why the mitochondrion is called the powerhouse of the cell.
In this question the four illustrations are a dot pattern, a mitochondrion, a brick wall and an atomic lattice.

Study next

The chloroplast, the other double-membrane organelle, and its granaCristae, matrix and where respiration happens inside the mitochondrionRecognising organelles from standard textbook diagrams

Common traps

Matching the option letter to the illustration of the same letter, when the key is option (c) and the picture is b.
Mistaking the dotted sheet in illustration a for a membrane diagram.

SSC repeats this picture-identification format across shifts.
The 19 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper asks which illustration relates to chloroplasts (GA Q.3), and 10 Sep 2024, 16:00 asks which organelle undergoes oxidation to produce hydrogen peroxide (GA Q.13).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.