SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 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 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.

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: The spokesperson refused to comment (1)/ until the investigation would be completed (2)/ to avoid jeopardising (3)/ ongoing proceedings. (4)/

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

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The faulty segment is until the investigation would be completed.

Until opens a time clause, and a time clause does not use will or would to mark future time. The frame here is past ('refused'), so the clause takes a past tense.

It should read 'until the investigation was completed' → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(1) — 'The spokesperson refused to comment' is sound. Refuse takes a to-infinitive, and the past tense 'refused' sets the time frame the rest of the sentence must follow.
(c)
(3) — 'To avoid jeopardising' is correct. Avoid is followed by the -ing form, so 'jeopardising' is right, and 'to avoid' is an infinitive of purpose giving the reason for the refusal.
(d)
(4) — 'Ongoing proceedings' is the object of 'jeopardising' and is complete. A plural noun here can take 'the' or go without it, so neither reading makes the segment wrong.

Concept

English does not use will or would to mark future time in a clause of time. After when, until, before, after, as soon as and by the time, a present tense carries the future and a past tense carries the future-in-the-past.

So 'I will wait until he comes', not 'until he will come'. Move the frame into the past and it becomes 'I waited until he came'.

The main clause keeps its will or would. Only the time clause gives it up.

'Until the investigation had been completed' is also correct, stressing that the investigation would finish first. Either repair removes the same fault, the would.

Key facts

After until, when, before, after and as soon as, a present tense carries future time: 'until the report is ready'.
In a past frame the same clause takes a past tense: 'refused to comment until the report was ready'.
Avoid takes the -ing form: 'avoid jeopardising', not 'avoid to jeopardise'.
Refuse takes a to-infinitive: 'refused to comment'.

Study next

Tenses in clauses of time and condition: when, until, as soon as, if, unlessVerbs followed by the -ing form (avoid, deny, risk) versus a to-infinitive (refuse, decide, agree)Inversion after 'Not until', as in 'Not until the data was independently verified was it accepted'

Common traps

Passing over 'would be completed' because 'would' looks natural in a past-tense sentence
Suspecting 'to avoid jeopardising' because two verb forms sit together, when avoid simply takes the -ing form

One segment carries the fault, and here it is the tense inside a time clause.

The correct past tense after until appears at 15 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.8: 'Not until the data was independently verified...'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 121 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.