SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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: Not until the data was independently verified _____ accepted by the journal.

(a)it was
(b)was it
(c)did it
(d)had it

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is Not until at the front of the sentence. A fronted negative expression makes the main clause invert: auxiliary before subject, as in a question.

The main clause is passive, it was accepted, so its auxiliary is was. Inverted, that is was it accepted.

Not until the data was independently verified was it accepted by the journal → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
it was — It was keeps normal order, subject before verb. After a fronted Not until, the main clause must invert, so it was accepted becomes was it accepted.
(c)
did it — Did is the auxiliary for an active simple past and takes the bare verb: did it accept. The verb here is the passive participle accepted, which needs was.
(d)
had it — Had it accepted is past perfect active, as if the data had done the accepting. A passive past perfect would need been: had it been accepted.

Concept

Negative or restrictive expressions at the start of a sentence, such as Not until, Never, Seldom, No sooner and Only then, trigger subject-auxiliary inversion, the word order of a question.

With Not until, the until-clause keeps normal order. The inversion falls in the main clause that follows: Not until I saw it did I believe it.

In a passive the auxiliary is the form of be: Not until it was verified was it accepted.

The same meaning without inversion uses a cleft: It was not until the data was independently verified that it was accepted by the journal. After that, the clause keeps normal order.

Key facts

A sentence opening with Not until inverts its main clause: Not until he left did I relax.
The until-clause itself keeps normal order: Not until the data was verified.
A passive main clause inverts its be-auxiliary: was it accepted.
The cleft It was not until X that Y takes no inversion.

Study next

Inversion after other negative openers: Never have I, Seldom does she, Hardly had weCleft sentences: It was not until X that Y, It was only when X that Y

Common traps

Inverting the until-clause instead of the main clause: Not until was the data verified
Choosing did it by habit, when the word after the blank is the passive participle accepted
Carrying the inversion into a cleft: It was not until the report was leaked did the ministry act

The contrast case is 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.12. 'It was not until the second report was leaked to the press did the ministry issue a formal clarification' is keyed wrong at part (3): the cleft takes that and normal order.

Inversion after a fronted negative is also tested at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.9: No sooner had he entered the room, keyed than.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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