SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 3 of 75

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 meaning of idiom: In the doldrums

(a)Sailing in high winds
(b)In a state of depression or inactivity
(c)On the verge of success
(d)Working with great energy

Answer

Why

Correct — B. To be in the doldrums is to be in low spirits, or in a spell where nothing moves forward: the market has been in the doldrums all year.

The image comes from the sea. The doldrums is the sailors' name for the belt of calms and light, shifting winds near the equator, where sailing ships could lie becalmed.

Becalmed and going nowhere → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Sailing in high winds — Sailing in high winds reverses the sea image. The doldrums are known for calms, so the idiom describes being stuck, not racing along.
(c)
On the verge of success — On the verge of success implies progress about to pay off. The doldrums describe the opposite: a spell of stagnation with no progress in sight.
(d)
Working with great energy — Working with great energy is the opposite of the idiom's inactivity. A person or business in the doldrums is listless, not busy.

Concept

An idiom item asks for the figurative meaning, not the literal one. The literal doldrums are a region of ocean near the equator known for calms and light, unpredictable winds.

The figurative sense keeps the core idea of being becalmed. Said of a person, it means low spirits. Said of an economy, a career or a team, it means stagnation.

The key's wording, depression or inactivity, covers both uses.

The key joins two senses with or: depression for a person's mood, inactivity for a market or a project. Both come from the same picture of a ship that cannot move.

Key facts

In the doldrums means in low spirits, or in a period of inactivity or stagnation.
The doldrums is the sailors' name for the equatorial belt of calms and light, variable winds.
Meteorologists call that belt the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

Study next

Other idioms from sailing, such as take the wind out of someone's sails and on an even keelIdioms for low spirits, such as down in the dumps and feeling blue

Common traps

Picking Sailing in high winds because the idiom sounds nautical, without knowing that the doldrums are calm

Here the idiom is printed bare after 'Choose the correct meaning of idiom:', with four paraphrases to choose from.

The same stem frames Fly off the handle at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.3 and Bury the hatchet at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Idioms and phrases — all 97 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.