SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · 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 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.

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: The policy aims to neither penalise first-time offenders (1)/ nor those who may have violated norms (2)/ due to systemic ambiguity (3)/ rather than deliberate intent. (4)

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

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Neither ... nor is a correlative pair. Whatever follows neither must be the same kind of phrase as whatever follows nor.

After nor comes a noun phrase: those who may have violated norms. After neither comes a verb: penalise first-time offenders. The two halves do not match.

Move neither to stand before the first noun phrase: "aims to penalise neither first-time offenders nor those who..." The fault is in part (1) → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
(2) — nor those who may have violated norms is the sound second half. Nor pairs with neither, and may have violated is a correct modal perfect for a possible past act. It sets the pattern part (1) must match.
(c)
(3) — due to systemic ambiguity gives the cause of the violation. Some older guides want owing to when the phrase modifies a verb, but due to meaning because of is widely accepted, and the key places the fault elsewhere.
(d)
(4) — rather than deliberate intent balances due to systemic ambiguity: ambiguity set against intent, noun phrase against noun phrase. The contrast is parallel and the sentence closes correctly.

Concept

Correlative conjunctions work in pairs: neither ... nor, either ... or, both ... and, not only ... but also. Each half must be followed by the same grammatical unit.

The repair is to move the first half, not to rewrite the sentence. Find what follows the second half, then put the first half directly before the matching unit.

Here nor is followed by a noun phrase, so neither must come after the verb both groups share: penalise neither X nor Y.

There is no 'No error' option here, so one of the four parts has to be wrong. Once the mismatch in part (1) is found, the rest need only a quick check.

Key facts

Neither ... nor, either ... or, both ... and and not only ... but also are correlative conjunctions.
The words after each half of a correlative pair must be the same kind of unit: noun phrase with noun phrase, verb with verb.
Misplaced: She neither likes tea nor coffee. Correct: She likes neither tea nor coffee.

Study next

Placing either ... or: You can take either the bus or the trainNot only ... but also with a shared verb: He lost not only his keys but also his walletVerb agreement after neither ... nor, where the verb agrees with the nearer subject

Common traps

Accepting neither because it opens the pair, without checking what follows nor
Marking part (3) on the old objection to due to, when part (1) holds a plain structural fault

The same placement rule decides 24 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.16, a not only ... but also item. The key moves not only to stand before by giving hints, so that it matches with providing her links after but also.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 86 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.