SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 16 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.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage:
In contemporary discourse, the debate between entrepreneurship and conventional employment has gained remarkable traction. While traditional employment offers predictability, structured growth, and a defined career trajectory, entrepreneurship appeals to those seeking autonomy, innovation, and the potential for exponential returns. However, both paths are fraught with distinct advantages and inherent uncertainties. Employment, particularly within established organizations, provides financial stability, social recognition, and institutional support. Employees are not burdened with existential risks such as capital loss or market unpredictability. Instead, they operate within frameworks of responsibility and hierarchy, where risk is absorbed at higher managerial levels. For many, this structure offers psychological comfort and a clear roadmap for progression. Conversely, entrepreneurship demands resilience, resourcefulness, and a high tolerance for ambiguity. Entrepreneurs must navigate volatile markets, regulatory complexities, and the absence of assured income—challenges often underestimated by aspirants. Yet, for those with a risk appetite and creative acumen, entrepreneurship promises a unique form of fulfillment. It allows individuals to disrupt existing paradigms, build ventures from the ground up, and possibly shape industries. Societal perceptions further complicate the dichotomy. In many cultures, steady employment is seen as the hallmark of success, while entrepreneurial endeavors are often perceived as reckless or unstable—until they succeed. This perception, however, is gradually shifting as global startup ecosystems mature and innovation becomes synonymous with progress. The real decision, therefore, lies not in which path is superior but in aligning one’s temperament, values, and long-term goals with the demands of each route. Entrepreneurship may offer liberation, but it is not without sacrifice. Employment may provide security, but it can come at the cost of creative constraint. A reflective, context-aware approach—not blind aspiration—is essential for navigating this professional crossroads.

Why is employment often psychologically comforting, as per the passage?

(a)It allows for flexible innovation
(b)It eliminates the need for competition
(c)It provides hierarchy and reduced risk
(d)It ensures rapid promotions

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Employees "operate within frameworks of responsibility and hierarchy, where risk is absorbed at higher managerial levels."

The next sentence gives the effect: "For many, this structure offers psychological comfort and a clear roadmap for progression."

This structure points back to the hierarchy that absorbs risk. Hierarchy with risk taken off the employee is "hierarchy and reduced risk" → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
It allows for flexible innovation — Flexible innovation belongs to the entrepreneurship side of the passage. For employment it warns of the opposite: security "can come at the cost of creative constraint".
(b)
It eliminates the need for competition — Competition is never mentioned in the passage. The comfort it describes comes from structure and absorbed risk, not from an absence of rivals.
(d)
It ensures rapid promotions — Rapid promotions go beyond the text. The passage offers "structured growth" and "a clear roadmap for progression", a defined path, not a fast one.

Concept

This is a reference question. The stem's phrase, psychologically comforting, echoes the passage's psychological comfort, so start there.

That sentence opens with this structure, a pointer back to the sentence before. The reason for the comfort lies in what the pointer refers to: hierarchy, with risk absorbed higher up.

The matching sentence gives the effect. The cause sits one sentence earlier.

The passage adds that employees "are not burdened with existential risks such as capital loss or market unpredictability". That is the reduced risk option (c) names.

Key facts

A demonstrative such as this structure points back to something already described.
The passage says risk is absorbed at higher managerial levels, so employees are spared capital loss and market unpredictability.
Creative constraint is the cost the passage assigns to employment.

Study next

Reference words in passages: this, that, such, theseCause-and-effect questions whose answer spans two sentences

Common traps

Stopping at the sentence that repeats psychological comfort and turning its clear roadmap into rapid promotions
Carrying innovation over from the entrepreneurship half of the passage

At 13 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.15, the same passage is asked about the other side of its contrast: which quality entrepreneurship demands.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Reading comprehension — all 128 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage:
In contemporary discourse, the debate between entrepreneurship and conventional employment has gained remarkable traction. While traditional employment offers predictability, structured growth, and a defined career trajectory, entrepreneurship appeals to those seeking autonomy, innovation, and the potential for exponential returns. However, both paths are fraught with distinct advantages and inherent uncertainties. Employment, particularly within established organizations, provides financial stability, social recognition, and institutional support. Employees are not burdened with existential risks such as capital loss or market unpredictability. Instead, they operate within frameworks of responsibility and hierarchy, where risk is absorbed at higher managerial levels. For many, this structure offers psychological comfort and a clear roadmap for progression. Conversely, entrepreneurship demands resilience, resourcefulness, and a high tolerance for ambiguity. Entrepreneurs must navigate volatile markets, regulatory complexities, and the absence of assured income—challenges often underestimated by aspirants. Yet, for those with a risk appetite and creative acumen, entrepreneurship promises a unique form of fulfillment. It allows individuals to disrupt existing paradigms, build ventures from the ground up, and possibly shape industries. Societal perceptions further complicate the dichotomy. In many cultures, steady employment is seen as the hallmark of success, while entrepreneurial endeavors are often perceived as reckless or unstable—until they succeed. This perception, however, is gradually shifting as global startup ecosystems mature and innovation becomes synonymous with progress. The real decision, therefore, lies not in which path is superior but in aligning one’s temperament, values, and long-term goals with the demands of each route. Entrepreneurship may offer liberation, but it is not without sacrifice. Employment may provide security, but it can come at the cost of creative constraint. A reflective, context-aware approach—not blind aspiration—is essential for navigating this professional crossroads.