SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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 meaning of idiom: To chew the cud of reflection

(a)Eating slowly
(b)Daydreaming without focus
(c)Pondering deeply
(d)Mentally preparing for battle

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The image is a cow chewing its cud: half-digested food it brings back up and chews again, slowly.

Said of a person, it means turning a thought over and over. Of reflection makes that explicit: what is being chewed is a thought.

So the idiom means Pondering deeply → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Eating slowly — Eating slowly is the literal picture behind the idiom, not its meaning. And of reflection makes clear the thing chewed is a thought, not food.
(b)
Daydreaming without focus — Without focus is the opposite of chewing the cud, which is a slow, deliberate going-over of one thought. Daydreaming drifts; reflection dwells.
(d)
Mentally preparing for battle — Nothing in chew the cud or reflection points to conflict or getting ready for it. The option borrows 'mentally' to sound plausible.

Concept

An idiom means something its words do not say literally. The literal image is a clue to the meaning, not the meaning.

A cow chews its cud slowly and repeatedly. Moved to the mind, that becomes thinking something over at length.

English has one verb for both senses: ruminate means to chew the cud and also to think deeply. Ruminants, such as cows, sheep and goats, are named for the habit.

Key facts

Chew the cud = think something over slowly and carefully.
Cud = partly digested food a ruminant brings back up to chew again.
Ruminate = to chew the cud, and to think deeply about something.

Study next

Thinking verbs: ruminate, cogitate, mull over, broodAnimal idioms: let the cat out of the bag, a white elephant, crocodile tears

Common traps

Choosing Eating slowly because it describes the literal image.
Choosing Daydreaming because it also involves the mind, missing that chewing the cud is focused, not drifting.

The same 'Choose the correct meaning of idiom' frame appears at 24 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.4, where The writing on the wall is keyed as a clear warning of inevitable doom.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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