SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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: Though the board remained divided on procedural issues, the chairperson, ___ authority was rarely contested, pushed the resolution through.

(a)whose
(b)whom
(c)who's
(d)which

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The word after the blank is a noun, authority, and that authority belongs to the chairperson. The relative word that stands before a noun and shows possession is whose.

The chairperson, whose authority was rarely contested, pushed the resolution through → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
whom — Whom is an object pronoun, as in the chairperson, whom the board elected. It cannot stand before a noun, and this clause needs a possessive.
(c)
who's — Who's is short for who is or who has. 'The chairperson, who is authority was rarely contested' does not parse. The possessive is whose, with no apostrophe.
(d)
which — Which refers to things, not people, and the antecedent is the chairperson. It also does not show possession, so it cannot give the chairperson's authority.

Concept

Whose is the possessive relative word. It joins a noun to its owner: the chairperson's authority becomes the chairperson, whose authority was rarely contested.

Who stands for a person as subject (the chairperson, who led the board). Whom stands for a person as object (the chairperson, whom the board elected).

The commas mark a non-defining clause: extra information about a chairperson already identified.

Who's and whose sound the same, which is why the contraction is among the options. Expand it to test: who's always opens out into who is or who has.

Key facts

Whose is the possessive relative: the chairperson, whose authority was rarely contested.
Who's is short for who is or who has.
Whose can refer to things as well as people: a house whose roof leaks.
Which refers to things, while who and whom refer to people.

Study next

Relative pronouns by case: who (subject), whom (object), whose (possessive)Defining and non-defining relative clauses, and why that cannot open a clause set off by commasHomophone pairs: whose and who's, its and it's, their and they're

Common traps

Choosing who's because it sounds identical to whose
Choosing whom because the sentence is formal, when whom is an object and cannot stand before a noun

Whose, whom and which are options again at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.25, a cloze blank in 'Children, ___ basic, core learning ... was weak to begin with', keyed whose because a noun follows the blank.

When a verb follows the blank, the answer changes: 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.11, 'The discovery, ___ was unexpected', is keyed which.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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