SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 7 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 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the correct option: The startup scaled so rapidly that its infrastructure could ___ keep pace.

(a)barely
(b)merely
(c)scarcely
(d)all but

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The trigger is the result clause so rapidly that: the startup grew so fast that its infrastructure was stretched.

The blank sits between could and keep, so it wants an adverb of degree saying how nearly the infrastructure managed. Barely means 'only just, by a small margin': it kept pace, with nothing to spare.

'Could barely keep pace' is the reading SSC keys → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
merely — Merely means 'nothing more than'. It would present keeping pace as a small thing the infrastructure did, where the so ... that clause makes keeping pace the hard part.
(c)
scarcely — Scarcely also means 'hardly, only just', and 'could scarcely keep pace' is sound English. Nothing in the sentence separates it from barely. The key marks barely, and this card follows the key.
(d)
all but — All but means 'very nearly', as in 'the food is all but finished'. 'Could all but keep pace' would say the infrastructure came close and fell short, a near-miss rather than the just-coping of barely.

Concept

Barely, scarcely and hardly are adverbs of degree meaning 'only just' or 'almost not'. They carry a negative sense although they contain no not.

Merely is different: it means 'nothing more than' and limits a statement. All but means 'very nearly', so it reports a near-miss rather than a narrow success.

In this sentence the so ... that clause sets up strain, growth so fast that the infrastructure struggled. The keyed word describes that strain: it kept up, but by a small margin.

An honest caveat. Dictionaries list scarcely as a synonym of barely in this sense, and 'could scarcely keep pace' is as grammatical as 'could barely keep pace'.

Nothing in the sentence prefers one over the other on grammar or meaning. The key marks barely, and this card is written to the key; see the dispute note.

Key facts

Barely means only just, by a small margin, or almost not.
Could barely, could scarcely and could hardly all mean could only just.
All but means very nearly: 'all but finished' means almost finished.
Scarcely behaves as a negative, so it pairs with ever: 'scarcely ever', not 'scarcely never'.

Study next

Negative adverbs of degree and the inversion 'Scarcely had she arrived when ...'The two senses of all but: 'very nearly' (all but finished) and 'everything except' (all but three)So ... that result clauses and what they tell you about the blank

Common traps

Reading all but as 'everything except', which makes 'could all but keep pace' seem to mean the infrastructure failed
Choosing merely because it sounds like a softer barely, when it means 'nothing more than' and says nothing about difficulty

Hardly, from the same family, sits in the wrong option 'hardly you work' at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.19, where 'No matter how hard you work' needs the manner adverb hard.

'Barely to' and 'hardly to' are both wrong options at 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.23, where the cloze blank before 'accelerate' is keyed likely to.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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