SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 7 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.

Select the correct option: The finance minister’s statement was laden with caveats, none of ___ were explained.

(a)that
(b)them
(c)which
(d)whom

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The trigger is the preposition of in none of ___, after a comma. The blank must open a relative clause about the caveats.

After a preposition, a relative clause about things takes which, and one about people takes whom.

Caveats are things, so: none of which were explained → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
that — That as a relative pronoun never follows a preposition, and it cannot open a clause set off by a comma. None of that fails on both counts.
(b)
them — Them turns none of them were explained into a second full sentence. Two sentences joined by a bare comma make a comma splice, which needs and or a semicolon to fix.
(d)
whom — Whom is the object form for people. It fits the grammar of none of ___ but not the meaning, because caveats are things.

Concept

The sentence joins two ideas: the statement was laden with caveats, and none of the caveats were explained.

To fold the second idea into the first, replace the caveats with a relative pronoun and keep the preposition: none of which.

This is a non-defining relative clause, set off by a comma to add information, and that type takes which or who/whom, never that.

None can take a singular or a plural verb. The plural were here agrees with the caveats and is standard, so the verb is not what the item tests.

Key facts

After a preposition, a relative clause takes which for things and whom for people.
That is not used in a non-defining relative clause, the kind set off by a comma.
Joining two full sentences with only a comma is a comma splice.
Phrases like none of which, some of which and all of whom open relative clauses.

Study next

Quantifier + of + which/whom: none of which, most of whom, both of whichDefining against non-defining relative clauses, and what the comma signals

Common traps

Choosing them because none of them sounds natural in speech, and missing the comma splice it leaves
Choosing whom because it looks formal, without checking that caveats are things

The blank sits straight after a preposition, so the pronoun's form and what it refers to both have to fit.

15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.11 tests the choice between that and which in a clause set off by commas (The discovery, ___ was unexpected, keyed which).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 58 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.