SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 6 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 one-word substitute for: 'A person who abstains from all forms of indulgence'.

(a)Ascetic
(b)Agnostic
(c)Mystic
(d)Skeptic

Answer

Why

Correct — A. An ascetic is a person who practises strict self-denial, giving up pleasures and comforts, especially as a spiritual discipline.

The definition turns on abstains and all forms of indulgence: a deliberate and complete refusal of pleasure. That is exactly what ascetic names → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Agnostic — Agnostic is about knowledge of God: a person who holds that God's existence cannot be known. It says nothing about pleasure or self-denial.
(c)
Mystic — Mystic names a person who seeks direct experience of God or spiritual truth through contemplation. The word is about that spiritual quest, not about abstaining from indulgence.
(d)
Skeptic — Skeptic is a person who questions or doubts accepted claims. Doubt is an attitude of mind, not a way of denying yourself pleasure.

Concept

One-word substitution needs the word whose definition matches every part of the phrase.

The phrase has two parts: abstains, holds back by choice, and all forms of indulgence, every pleasure rather than one. Ascetic covers both.

Its opposite is hedonist, a person who pursues pleasure. The way of life is asceticism, and the word comes from Greek askein, 'to exercise, train'.

Agnostic and Mystic both belong to the vocabulary of religion, which makes them look close. Ascetic is the word defined by what a person gives up, and that is what the phrase describes.

Key facts

Ascetic: a person who practises strict self-denial, especially as a spiritual discipline.
Hedonist: a person who pursues pleasure, the opposite of an ascetic.
Agnostic: a person who holds that the existence of God cannot be known.
Skeptic, spelt sceptic in British English: a person who questions or doubts accepted beliefs.

Study next

One-word substitutes for belief and attitude, such as atheist, theist, agnostic, stoic and cynicAscetic against stoic: giving up pleasure, against being indifferent to pain and pleasure

Common traps

Choosing Mystic because ascetics and mystics are both linked with spiritual life
Confusing ascetic with aesthetic, which concerns beauty and taste

The same family is tested at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.6, where 'A person who is indifferent to pain or pleasure' is keyed Stoic and Ascetic is a wrong option.

Agnostic is keyed at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.2 for 'A person who is unsure about God's existence'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: One-word substitution — all 125 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.