SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 5 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.

Spot the correct spelling of an electron-transport protein.

(a)Cytocrome
(b)Cytocrhome
(c)Cytochrome
(d)Cytohrome

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Build the word from its two Greek parts: cyto-, 'cell', and -chrome, 'colour'.

The second part is spelt c-h-r-o-m-e, exactly as in chrome and chromosome. Join the two and you get Cytochrome → option (c).

Each misspelling breaks the ch of chrome: one drops the h, one swaps the h and the r, and one drops the c.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Cytocrome — Cytocrome drops the h and leaves -crome. The colour root is spelt chrome, with ch, as in monochrome.
(b)
Cytocrhome — Cytocrhome has every letter but swaps two: c-r-h instead of c-h-r. The ch must stay together, as it does in chromosome.
(d)
Cytohrome — Cytohrome drops the c of ch and leaves -hrome. Without the c there is no ch, so the word no longer contains chrome.

Concept

Cytochromes are haem-containing proteins that carry electrons, most famously along the electron transport chain in mitochondria. The name means 'cell colour': they are coloured pigments found in cells.

For spelling, the item is a root check. Cyto- appears in cytoplasm and cytology. Chrom- appears in chromosome, chromatography and monochrome.

Keep the ch together and the word spells itself.

The stem calls cytochrome a protein. Strictly, it is a protein bound to a haem group, and the iron in that haem is what takes up and passes on the electron.

Key facts

Cytochrome is spelt c-y-t-o-c-h-r-o-m-e.
Cyto- means cell, as in cytoplasm and cytology.
Chrome and chromo- mean colour, as in chromosome and monochrome.
Cytochromes are haem proteins that carry electrons in the electron transport chain.

Study next

Greek roots in biology terms, such as cyto-, chromo- and -someThe ch spelling pronounced k, as in chlorophyll, chromatin and characterSpelling science words from their roots, such as chromatography and cytoplasm

Common traps

Spelling by sound, k-r-o-m, and dropping the h that the Greek ch carries
Seeing all the right letters in Cytocrhome and missing that two of them are swapped

Here the paper describes the word by its meaning, 'an electron-transport protein', and prints four spellings of it.

The same cyto- root is tested at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.5, where Cytotoxicity is keyed among near-miss spellings. A chromosome term, Trisomy, is the spelling to find at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.5.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Spelling — all 118 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.