SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 2 · 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.

Choose the correct phrasal verb: The scientist was unable to _____ a definitive conclusion from the data.

(a)draw out
(b)bring up
(c)make over
(d)arrive at

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The trigger is the object a definitive conclusion. The blank needs a verb meaning reach, and the particle has to belong to that idiom.

Arrive at means to reach an answer, decision or conclusion after thought.

Read it back: The scientist was unable to arrive at a definitive conclusion from the data → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
draw out — Draw out means to make something last longer (a drawn-out meeting) or to coax a quiet person into talking. The collocation is draw a conclusion, and out spoils it.
(b)
bring up — Bring up means to raise a subject in conversation or to rear a child. You bring up an issue; you do not bring up a conclusion from data.
(c)
make over — Make over means to transfer ownership (make over property to someone) or to remodel how something looks. Neither sense fits reaching a conclusion.

Concept

A phrasal-verb blank gives you the object and asks which verb-plus-particle pair collocates with it. Meaning alone is not enough: the particle must belong to the idiom.

Conclusion collocates with reach, come to, draw and arrive at. Of these, arrive at is offered whole. Draw appears only as draw out, a different phrasal verb with its own meanings.

Strictly, grammars class arrive at as a prepositional verb: a verb plus a preposition, with the object after the preposition. The heading here calls it a phrasal verb, so do not rule an option out on that label.

Key facts

Arrive at = reach an answer, decision or conclusion after thought.
Draw a conclusion is standard. Draw out means prolong, or coax someone into talking.
Bring up = raise a topic, or rear a child.
Make over = transfer ownership, or remodel how something looks.

Study next

Verb–noun collocations with conclusion, decision and agreementPhrasal verbs built on draw: draw out, draw up, draw onPrepositional verbs vs phrasal verbs

Common traps

Choosing draw out because draw a conclusion is familiar. The particle out turns it into a different verb.
Rejecting arrive at because it is strictly a prepositional verb, when the heading uses phrasal verb for both kinds.

The same format, a blank before an object noun with four phrasal verbs to choose from, is asked at 24 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.1, where a solution takes come up with.

At 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.8 the object is the old files, keyed clean out.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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