SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 7 of 99

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 one-word substitute for: 'One who pretends to have knowledge or skills'.

(a)Savante
(b)Charlatan
(c)Virtuoso
(d)Connoisseur

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
The trigger word is pretends. A charlatan is a person who falsely claims special knowledge or skill: a fake expert, like a quack doctor.

Savante, virtuoso and connoisseur all name people whose knowledge or skill is real.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Savante — Savante, a form of savant, names a person of deep learning. The knowledge is genuine, which is the opposite of pretending.
(c)
Virtuoso — Virtuoso is a person with outstanding real skill, usually in music or another art. The skill is proven, not pretended.
(d)
Connoisseur — Connoisseur is an expert judge of taste, in art, food or wine. The expertise is genuine, so it misses 'pretends'.

Concept

One word in the definition decides this item: pretends. The answer must be someone whose knowledge or skill is false.

Charlatan is the fake. It keeps company with quack, a fake doctor, and mountebank, an old word for a swindler who sold bogus remedies in public.

The paper prints option (a) as Savante, with a final e; the usual English form is savant. Either spelling names a learned person, not a pretender.

Key facts

Charlatan: a person who falsely claims special knowledge or skill.
Impostor: a person who pretends to be someone else.
Quack: a person who falsely claims medical knowledge.
Savant, virtuoso and connoisseur all name genuine experts, in learning, performance and taste.

Study next

Charlatan, impostor, quack and mountebank comparedWords for real expertise and its lack: savant, virtuoso, polymath, dilettante

Common traps

Choosing a skill word such as virtuoso because the definition mentions 'knowledge or skills' — the deciding word is pretends.
Confusing charlatan with impostor: the impostor fakes an identity, the charlatan fakes expertise.

The same family is asked with identity as the fake: 19 Sep 2025, 9:00, English Q.7 keys Impostor for 'A person who pretends to be what he is not', and 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.7 keys Impostor for one who deceives by pretending to be someone else.

Savant and Virtuoso reappear as decoys at 24 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.7, keyed Polymath.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: One-word substitution — all 125 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.