SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · 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.

Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the underlined group of words. The question papers are placed in the lockers of the school in a way that they can’t be reached.

(a)are affable
(b)are irrepressible
(c)are affordable
(d)are inaccessible

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The underlined words are they can't be reached, and the substitute has to keep the frame the sentence already has: the papers are something.

inaccessible is in- (not) plus accessible, so it means cannot be got at or reached — the exact sense of the underlined clause.

The lockers are the reason and inaccessible is the state they produce, so option (d) replaces the clause without changing its meaning.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
are affable — affable means friendly and easy to talk to, and it describes people. Question papers cannot be affable, however approachable the word sounds.
(b)
are irrepressible — irrepressible means impossible to hold back or subdue, said of energy, laughter or a person's spirits. It is about restraint, not about reach.
(c)
are affordable — affordable means cheap enough to buy. Price has no bearing on a sentence about papers locked away in a school.

Concept

The prefix does the work here. in- negates, and it assimilates to im-, il- or ir- before certain letters: accessible becomes inaccessible, legible becomes illegible, responsible becomes irresponsible.

Match the substitute to the underlined words piece by piece. can't gives the negative, be reached gives access, and the frame gives are.

Of the four options only irrepressible carries a negative prefix at all, and it negates the wrong root. The rest are ordinary adjectives about people or prices.

Every option begins with are, so the grammar is identical across all four and the choice rests entirely on meaning. That is deliberate: SSC removes the form clue so that the vocabulary has to decide.

Key facts

inaccessible is in- plus accessible and means unable to be reached or entered.
The negative in- becomes im- before b, m and p, il- before l, and ir- before r.
affable comes from Latin affari, to speak to, and describes a person who is easy to talk to.

Study next

Negative prefixes and their assimilation (im-, il-, ir-, un-, dis-)Confusable adjectives in -able (amiable, amicable, affable)One-word substitutes that replace a whole clause (illegible, indispensable, inevitable)

Common traps

Choosing affable because approachable feels close to reachable.
Reading irrepressible as cannot be reached because it also starts with a negative prefix.
Picking a word for its meaning without checking that it fits the frame are ____.

This variant underlines a clause inside the sentence and offers ready-made replacements, so the answer must fit the grammar as well as the sense.

9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.7 (Multilingual) is the same underlined form. This 16:00 shift sets the plain form, where the group of words stands on its own, at English Q.2 (Curfew) and Q.6 (Dipsomania).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.