SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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.

Select the correct option: Had it not been for her timely intervention, the discussion might well have ___ into an acrimonious stalemate.

(a)evolved
(b)devolved
(c)emerged
(d)absorbed

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Read the frame first. Had it not been for her timely intervention means her intervention prevented something, and the rest of the sentence names it.

What it prevented is an acrimonious stalemate, a bitter deadlock. The verb before 'into' must describe a slide into that worse state.

Devolve into means degenerate, pass gradually into a worse condition. Without her intervention, the discussion might well have devolved into that deadlock → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
evolved — Evolved is the look-alike trap. Evolve into means develop gradually and suggests growth, which sits badly with a bitter deadlock. The sentence describes a decline, and that is devolve's sense.
(c)
emerged — Emerged means came out or came into view: emerged from the talks, emerged as a leader. It names an appearance, not a worsening, so it misses what the intervention prevented.
(d)
absorbed — Absorbed needs an object or the passive: talks are absorbed into a wider process. 'Might well have absorbed into' has neither, and being absorbed is not deteriorating.

Concept

Evolve and devolve share the Latin root volvere, 'to roll'. The prefix sets the direction: e- means 'out' and de- means 'down'.

Devolve has two uses. Power or duty devolves to a lower level, as when a central government devolves powers to a region. A situation devolves into something worse, as when a debate devolves into shouting.

The counterfactual had it not been for marks an outcome that was avoided, and here it was a bad one. A verb of decline completes it.

Evolved into is not ungrammatical, and on grammar alone a reader could defend it. The key rests on meaning: the sentence frames the stalemate as a danger averted, and devolve is the word for things getting worse.

Key facts

Devolve into means degenerate, to pass gradually into a worse state.
Devolve to means to pass power or duty down to a lower level.
Had it not been for X is the inverted form of If it had not been for X.
Acrimonious means bitter and angry, and a stalemate is a deadlock where no side can make progress.

Study next

Prefix pairs that reverse direction, such as evolve and devolve, ascend and descendInverted conditionals: had it not been for, were it not for, should you needWords for a deadlock: stalemate, impasse and gridlock

Common traps

Picking evolved because it is the familiar word and looks almost identical to devolved
Missing that 'had it not been for' marks an outcome that was avoided, the clue that the blank describes something bad

Here the paper gives one long sentence under 'Select the correct option:', with four past participles to fill the verb slot.

Look-alike words are also the test at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.8, where adverse, averse and converse sit beside the key, opposed, in 'diametrically ___ to the prevailing orthodoxy'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 96 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.