SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The architect discussed the vault beneath the cathedral.

(a)The gymnast performed a perfect vault over the horse.v
(b)The treasury vault was secured with biometric locks.
(c)The earthquake cracked the stone vault supporting the nave.
(d)The nobles were interred in the family vault.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. In the given sentence vault is the architect's word: an arched stone structure or chamber, here one beneath the cathedral.

In option (a) the gymnast performs a vault over the horse — a leap, pushing off with the hands. Same spelling and sound, different meaning: a homonym → option (a).

Options (b), (c) and (d) all keep the chamber-or-arch sense.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The treasury vault was secured with biometric locks. — The treasury vault is a strongroom for valuables — a secure chamber. That is the same noun as the vault beneath the cathedral, not an unrelated meaning.
(c)
The earthquake cracked the stone vault supporting the nave. — The stone vault supporting the nave is the arched masonry of a church — the same architectural noun as the stem's vault, not a new word.
(d)
The nobles were interred in the family vault. — The family vault in which the nobles were interred is a burial chamber, the kind of chamber that can lie beneath a cathedral. The meaning matches the stem.

Concept

A homonym has the same spelling and sound as another word but a different meaning. Fix the stem's meaning first, then find the option where the same form means something else.

Vault as a building word names an arched roof or ceiling, or a chamber such as a cellar, crypt, burial vault or strongroom.

Vault is also a leap over something, supporting yourself on the hands or a pole — the gymnast's vault and the pole vault.

Option (a) ends 'horse.v' on the response sheet itself — a stray letter after the full stop, reproduced as printed. It does not change the answer.

Key facts

Vault (building): an arched roof or ceiling, or a chamber such as a crypt, burial vault or strongroom.
Vault (movement): a leap over something using the hands or a pole.
Interred means buried.
The nave is the main central part of a church.

Study next

Homographs that differ in sound: lead (metal) and lead (to guide)Related senses of one word against unrelated words sharing a formUsing the words around a noun — beneath, over the horse, interred — to fix its sense

Common traps

Choosing the treasury vault because a bank strongroom feels far from a church — it is still a chamber, the stem's own sense
Being drawn to the stone vault or the family vault because they share the church setting — here that setting keeps the same sense

The same instruction is keyed at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.19 (a stern warning against the stern of a ship) and 13 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.13 (pike formation against a pike pulled from a lake). In both, the keyed sentence moves the word to an unrelated meaning.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Homonyms and confusables — all 29 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.