SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 14 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.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

NCERT's Class 11 text says ethylene breaks seed dormancy and initiates germination in peanut seeds, so statement (c) is not strictly incorrect; this card follows the key, which marks it as the statement that misstates ethylene's role.

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

Which of the below statements on the plant hormones is INCORRECT?

(a)Auxins promote growth
(b)Cytokinins delay aging
(c)Ethylene promotes seed germination
(d)Gibberellins promote stem elongation

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The stem asks for the INCORRECT statement, so test each hormone against its textbook role.

(a) Auxins promote growth, chiefly cell elongation. True.
(b) Cytokinins delay leaf senescence, the aging in the option. True.
(d) Gibberellins promote stem elongation. True.

(c) ties germination to ethylene, whose headline roles are fruit ripening, senescence and abscission, and which NCERT calls largely an inhibitor of growth. The key marks it as the incorrect statement → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Auxins promote growth — Auxins do promote growth, above all by cell elongation in shoots. The statement is correct, so it cannot be the INCORRECT one the stem asks for.
(b)
Cytokinins delay aging — Cytokinins do delay aging. They promote nutrient mobilisation, which delays leaf senescence, so the statement is correct as written.
(d)
Gibberellins promote stem elongation — Gibberellins do promote stem elongation. Sprayed on sugarcane they lengthen the stem, and they cause bolting in beet and cabbage, so the statement is correct.

Concept

Plant growth regulators fall into two broad groups. Auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins are growth promoters: cell division, cell enlargement, flowering, fruiting.

Abscisic acid is the growth inhibitor. It induces seed dormancy and inhibits seed germination.

Ethylene, a gas, can act either way, but NCERT calls it largely an inhibitor of growth. It is the hormone of fruit ripening and of the senescence and abscission of leaves and flowers.

Statement (c) is not false in every plant. NCERT records that ethylene breaks seed and bud dormancy and initiates germination in peanut seeds. The key treats it as the incorrect statement because germination is not ethylene's defining role.

Key facts

Auxins cause apical dominance and help initiate rooting in stem cuttings.
Cytokinins promote cell division and delay leaf senescence.
Gibberellins cause stem elongation, and bolting in beet and cabbage.
Ethylene promotes fruit ripening and the senescence and abscission of leaves and flowers.

Study next

Abscisic acid: seed dormancy and closure of stomata under stressEthephon, the compound that releases ethylene to hasten fruit ripeningApical dominance, and how cytokinins help overcome it

Common traps

Reading INCORRECT as correct and marking the first true statement.
Remembering ethylene only as a ripening hormone, then being thrown when a textbook says it can break seed dormancy.

Here each option pairs one hormone with one function and one pairing is keyed wrong. Knowing the headline role of each of the five hormone groups is what separates the options.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Scientific Research — all 220 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.