SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 22 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.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage :
Art, in its manifold forms—visual, performative, literary, and auditory—constitutes a domain that transcends utilitarian function and enters the realm of the symbolic, the affective, and the transformative. Its significance within society cannot be reduced to decoration or diversion; rather, it operates as a mode of critical reflection, a vessel of collective memory, and a catalyst for socio-cultural evolution. At its core, art interrogates the contours of reality by reframing perception. Whether through the destabilizing surrealism of a Dali canvas or the dissonant harmonies of avant-garde music, art dislodges the observer from complacency and compels re-engagement with the world. It is in this function that art becomes not only an aesthetic but an epistemological act—challenging dominant paradigms and opening discursive space for marginalized narratives. Historically, art has served as an archive of civilizations, encoding within its mediums the aspirations, anxieties, and ideologies of its epoch. From the sacred iconography of temple frescoes to the protest murals adorning urban decay, art becomes a text through which power, resistance, and identity are simultaneously contested and constituted. This historical embeddedness renders art indispensable to understanding not only what a society creates but what it values and fears. In modern democracies, the role of art assumes a distinctly political dimension. Art enables dissent when speech is suppressed, and engenders empathy where rational argument fails. Satire, documentary film, and performance art often articulate the unspeakable, using metaphor and allusion to subvert censure. Yet this potential also renders art vulnerable—to censorship, commodification, and ideological co-option. When stripped of autonomy, art may devolve into propaganda or elitist ornamentation—devoid of critical function. The sociological function of art extends to its capacity to cultivate communal belonging and individual introspection simultaneously. Participatory forms of art—street theatre, public installations, folk traditions—dissolve the binaries of creator and audience, democratizing aesthetic engagement. Meanwhile, solitary encounters with a painting or a poem can occasion personal revelation, catharsis, or ethical inquiry. However, in the algorithmic age, where virality and visibility often dictate cultural value, art faces unprecedented commodification. The aesthetic is frequently reduced to a spectacle optimized for consumption, divorced from nuance, complexity, or transgression. The challenge, therefore, is to preserve the sanctity of artistic integrity in the face of market and media pressures that threaten to flatten it into banality. Ultimately, the role of art in society is neither static nor monolithic. It is a dialectical force—at once reflective and projective, disruptive and redemptive. To safeguard art is to safeguard the capacity of humanity to feel, to question, and to reimagine.

What is the closest meaning of the word “banality” as used in the sentence: “...threaten to flatten it into banality”?

(a)Vitality
(b)Triviality
(c)Versatility
(d)Brutality

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The sentence: "The challenge, therefore, is to preserve the sanctity of artistic integrity in the face of market and media pressures that threaten to flatten it into banality."

The sentence before shows what flattening does: art is reduced to a spectacle "divorced from nuance, complexity, or transgression".

What is left is commonplace and unimportant. Banality is the quality of being trite and ordinary, and the closest option is Triviality → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Vitality — Vitality means liveliness and energy, the opposite of the flattened, commonplace state the sentence warns about.
(c)
Versatility — Versatility is the ability to adapt to many uses. Flattening removes nuance and complexity, so the sentence points away from range, not toward it.
(d)
Brutality — Brutality is savage cruelty. It shares the -ality ending with banality, but nothing in the sentence is violent: the pressures come from the market and media.

Concept

A word in context question asks what the word means in its sentence, so read the sentence and its neighbour before the options.

Banality is the quality of being banal: trite, commonplace, lacking originality. The verb flatten supports it, pressing art down into something ordinary.

The sentence before spells out what is lost, "nuance, complexity, or transgression". With those gone, what remains is trivial.

Key facts

Banal means so ordinary as to be dull: trite, commonplace, lacking originality.
Banality is the noun: the quality of being banal, or a banal remark.
Trivial means of little importance or value, and triviality is its noun.

Study next

Look-alike noun endings: banality, brutality, vitality, versatilitySynonyms of banal: trite, hackneyed, commonplace, platitudinous

Common traps

Reading the -ality ending as a clue — vitality, versatility and brutality share it with banality, and none is close in meaning.

A passage word is asked in context at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.2 as well: epochal in "Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary's epochal 1953 Everest ascent" is keyed Highly significant and historic, and there Trivial is a wrong option.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage :
Art, in its manifold forms—visual, performative, literary, and auditory—constitutes a domain that transcends utilitarian function and enters the realm of the symbolic, the affective, and the transformative. Its significance within society cannot be reduced to decoration or diversion; rather, it operates as a mode of critical reflection, a vessel of collective memory, and a catalyst for socio-cultural evolution. At its core, art interrogates the contours of reality by reframing perception. Whether through the destabilizing surrealism of a Dali canvas or the dissonant harmonies of avant-garde music, art dislodges the observer from complacency and compels re-engagement with the world. It is in this function that art becomes not only an aesthetic but an epistemological act—challenging dominant paradigms and opening discursive space for marginalized narratives. Historically, art has served as an archive of civilizations, encoding within its mediums the aspirations, anxieties, and ideologies of its epoch. From the sacred iconography of temple frescoes to the protest murals adorning urban decay, art becomes a text through which power, resistance, and identity are simultaneously contested and constituted. This historical embeddedness renders art indispensable to understanding not only what a society creates but what it values and fears. In modern democracies, the role of art assumes a distinctly political dimension. Art enables dissent when speech is suppressed, and engenders empathy where rational argument fails. Satire, documentary film, and performance art often articulate the unspeakable, using metaphor and allusion to subvert censure. Yet this potential also renders art vulnerable—to censorship, commodification, and ideological co-option. When stripped of autonomy, art may devolve into propaganda or elitist ornamentation—devoid of critical function. The sociological function of art extends to its capacity to cultivate communal belonging and individual introspection simultaneously. Participatory forms of art—street theatre, public installations, folk traditions—dissolve the binaries of creator and audience, democratizing aesthetic engagement. Meanwhile, solitary encounters with a painting or a poem can occasion personal revelation, catharsis, or ethical inquiry. However, in the algorithmic age, where virality and visibility often dictate cultural value, art faces unprecedented commodification. The aesthetic is frequently reduced to a spectacle optimized for consumption, divorced from nuance, complexity, or transgression. The challenge, therefore, is to preserve the sanctity of artistic integrity in the face of market and media pressures that threaten to flatten it into banality. Ultimately, the role of art in society is neither static nor monolithic. It is a dialectical force—at once reflective and projective, disruptive and redemptive. To safeguard art is to safeguard the capacity of humanity to feel, to question, and to reimagine.