SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 2 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 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.

Choose the correct meaning of idiom: Move heaven and earth

(a)To relocate frequently
(b)To work tirelessly to achieve something
(c)To stay silent in protest
(d)To follow blindly

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Move heaven and earth means to make every possible effort, to do everything in your power to bring something about.

The phrase is deliberate exaggeration: someone so determined they would shift the sky and the ground to get the result.

So the idiom is about effort towards a goal, which is what 'To work tirelessly to achieve something' says → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
To relocate frequently — To relocate frequently reads move in its literal sense, changing where you live. An idiom does not mean the sum of its words, and this one is about effort, not residence.
(c)
To stay silent in protest — To stay silent in protest describes holding back. Moving heaven and earth is the opposite, all-out action, so this option reverses the idiom's force.
(d)
To follow blindly — To follow blindly describes obedience without judgement. The idiom says nothing about following anyone, only about how hard a person tries to get a result.

Concept

An idiom is a fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be worked out from its words. Read literally, moving heaven and earth is impossible, and that impossibility is the point: it describes effort with no limit.

The goal follows as to + verb: 'The doctors moved heaven and earth to save his mother.'

Close equivalents are leave no stone unturned, pull out all the stops and go to great lengths.

The keyed wording, work tirelessly, stresses persistence, where dictionaries define the idiom as doing everything possible. The two overlap closely, and none of the other options is about effort at all.

Key facts

Move heaven and earth means to do everything possible to achieve something.
The goal follows as to + verb: moved heaven and earth to save his mother.
Close equivalents are leave no stone unturned, pull out all the stops and go to great lengths.

Study next

Effort idioms such as leave no stone unturned, pull out all the stops and go the extra mileIdiom-substitution items, where a plain phrase such as 'tried very hard' is replaced by an idiom

Common traps

Taking move literally and choosing 'To relocate frequently'
Treating the grand wording as a sign of protest or drama, when the idiom describes effort towards a result

The same idiom is tested the other way round at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10, where 'moved heaven and earth' is keyed as the idiom for 'tried very hard' in 'The doctors tried very hard to save his mother but they were unsuccessful.'

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Idioms and phrases — all 97 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.