SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 10 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.

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Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: The regulator's decision to postpone the implementation (1)/ was attributed partly to industry pressure (2)/ and partly due to legal ambiguity (3)/ surrounding the recent amendments. (4)

(a)(1)
(b)(2)
(c)(3)
(d)(4)

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The verb is attributed, and attribute takes to: you attribute a result to a cause.

The cause is split into two halves joined by partly ... and partly. Both hang on the same verb, so both need its preposition: partly to industry pressure, partly to legal ambiguity.

Part (3) swaps in due to, giving "attributed ... due to". It should read "and partly to legal ambiguity" → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(1) — Part (1) is the subject, the regulator's decision to postpone the implementation. Its head, decision, is singular and agrees with was in part (2).
(b)
(2) — attributed partly to industry pressure is the correct pattern, attribute + to + cause. It is the model that part (3) should copy.
(d)
(4) — surrounding the recent amendments is a participle phrase describing the legal ambiguity, the ambiguity that surrounds them. It is complete and correct.

Concept

Attribute is followed by to: The delay was attributed to the rain. The preposition belongs to the verb, whatever noun comes after it.

Due to means 'caused by'. Placed after attributed, it states the cause a second time and leaves attributed without its own to.

Items joined by partly ... and partly are parallel, so they take the same form: partly to X and partly to Y.

Due to is not wrong in itself: "The delay was due to legal ambiguity" is correct. It fails here only because attributed already calls for to.

Key facts

Attribute takes to: attribute a result to a cause (The delay was attributed to the rain).
Due to means 'caused by' and fits after be: The delay was due to the rain.
Items joined by partly ... and partly are parallel, so both take the same preposition.

Study next

Verbs with fixed prepositions: ascribe to, blame for, credit with, accuse ofDue to versus owing to and because ofParallel structure after correlative pairs such as neither ... nor and not only ... but also

Common traps

Accepting partly due to because due to is a sound phrase elsewhere, instead of checking part (3) against attributed
Suspecting part (1) because the subject is long, when its head, decision, agrees with was

The attribute-to pattern is also tested in Tier-II Paper-I, 19 Jan 2026, 11:00, English Q.7, whose keyed order BDAC reads "has been attributed by many climate scientists to the steady rise".

Paired halves that must match decide 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.10, a neither ... nor item keyed (a).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 121 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.