SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 9 of 95

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.

Read the below statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Mark the correct options: Assertion (A): The Moor's Last Sigh is acclaimed for its intricate narrative that blends historical events with magical realism to explore Indian identity and politics. Reason (R): The novel won the Booker Prize for its innovative storytelling and profound cultural insights.

(a)Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b)Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c)A is true, but R is false.
(d)A is false, but R is true.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Assertion A fits Salman Rushdie's 1995 novel. It follows a family through Bombay and Cochin, draws on events from the fall of Granada to the 1993 Bombay bombings, and its narrator ages twice as fast as normal.

Reason R is false. The Moor's Last Sigh was only shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize, which Pat Barker won with The Ghost Road. A true, R false: option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A. — R is false, so it cannot explain A. The novel reached the 1995 Booker shortlist but lost to Pat Barker's The Ghost Road.
(b)
Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A. — 'Both true' fails on R. Rushdie's Booker win came in 1981, for Midnight's Children. The Moor's Last Sigh was shortlisted in 1995 and did not win.
(d)
A is false, but R is true. — A is the true half: the novel blends history with fantastical elements, and it won the 1995 Whitbread Prize for Best Novel. It is R, the Booker claim, that fails.

Concept

The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) traces four generations of a family in Bombay and Cochin. Its narrator, Moraes Zogoiby, has a body that ages twice as fast as normal.

It was shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel that year. The 1995 Booker went to Pat Barker's The Ghost Road.

In an Assertion–Reason item, test each statement on its own first. The "correct explanation" question arises only when both are true, and here R fails on a checkable fact: shortlisted is not won.

Key facts

The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie was published in 1995.
It was shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize, won that year by Pat Barker's The Ghost Road.
It won the 1995 Whitbread Prize for Best Novel.
Rushdie won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight's Children.

Study next

Indian-origin Booker winners: Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and Aravind AdigaThe Booker Prize and the International Booker PrizeRushdie's Midnight's Children and magical realism

Common traps

Treating a Booker shortlisting as a win.
Judging whether R explains A before checking whether R is true.

Booker questions also appear at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.10, which asks who wrote The White Tiger, the 2008 winner (keyed Aravind Adiga).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 232 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.