SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 23 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 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.

A sentence is provided in indirect speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech. The manager told the staff that deadlines must be followed strictly.

(a)“Deadlines must be followed strictly,” said the manager.
(b)“You should follow deadlines strictly,” said the manager.
(c)“Follow deadlines strictly,” the manager said.
(d)“Deadlines are to be followed,” said the manager.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Work back from the reported sentence. 'Told the staff that' introduces a reported statement, so the direct speech is a statement in quotation marks.

The modal is must, and must can stay unchanged when it is reported. Keep it: 'Deadlines must be followed strictly.'

The passive 'must be followed' and the adverb strictly carry over as they are → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
“You should follow deadlines strictly,” said the manager. — Should is advice, not obligation, and should stays should when reported. A direct should could not produce the reported must.
(c)
“Follow deadlines strictly,” the manager said. — A bare command has no must and turns deadlines from subject into object. An order is normally reported with a to-infinitive: 'told the staff to follow deadlines strictly'.
(d)
“Deadlines are to be followed,” said the manager. — Drops strictly and swaps must for 'are to be', which would be reported as were to be. The reported sentence keeps both must and strictly.

Concept

Converting indirect speech back to direct means undoing each change the reporter made.

Remove that, restore the quotation marks, and move backshifted tenses forward again: would → will, was → is.

Must needs no undoing, because it can pass into reported speech unchanged. Everything the reporter did not alter stays too — here the passive 'deadlines must be followed' and the adverb strictly.

Every option drops the listener, 'the staff', so that detail cannot decide the item. The deciding points are statement form, must and strictly, and (a) is the option that keeps all three.

Key facts

Must can stay unchanged in reported speech or become had to.
A reported statement is introduced by that, a reported order by a to-infinitive: 'told them to follow'.
Should stays should in reported speech, so a reported must cannot come from should.

Study next

Modals in reported speech: can → could, may → might, must → must or had toReporting orders with told + object + to-infinitiveKeeping the passive voice inside a reported clause

Common traps

Reading every reported must as an order and reaching for the imperative — here it reports a statement containing must.
Choosing 'Deadlines are to be followed' because it sounds formal and close — strictly has vanished.

The forward conversion is keyed at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.23, where the key reports 'You must work hard' with had to rather than an unchanged must.

A reported would is turned back into will at 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.23.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 23 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.