SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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.

Select the correct phrasal verb: We need to _____ the old files before moving the new ones.

(a)clean out
(b)clear off
(c)wipe over
(d)go over

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
The trigger is the purpose: the old files must be dealt with before moving the new ones, so the verb has to mean removing them to make room.

Clean out means to remove unwanted things from a place, leaving it empty. 'Clean out the old files' clears the space the new ones need.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
clear off — Clear off is chiefly an informal order to leave ('Clear off!'), or taking things off a surface such as a desk. Emptying a store of unwanted old files is the job of clean out.
(c)
wipe over — Wipe over means passing a cloth quickly across a surface. Files are not wiped over; the sentence needs them removed, not dusted.
(d)
go over — Go over means to examine or check carefully. 'Go over the old files' is grammatical, but checking them does not make room for new ones; removal does.

Concept

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle, and the pair can mean something the verb alone does not: go over means check, and nothing is going anywhere.

The particle out can signal removal or emptying: clean out, clear out, throw out, weed out. Here it carries the sense the sentence needs.

Go over is the strongest distractor, since 'We need to go over the old files' is a normal sentence. What rules it out is the purpose clause: 'before moving the new ones' asks for space to be made.

The close cousin clear out would also fit, but it is not among the options; clear off is a different phrasal verb.

Key facts

Clean out: remove unwanted things from a place, leaving it empty.
Go over: examine or check carefully.
Clear off (informal): go away.
Wipe over: pass a cloth quickly across a surface.

Study next

Phrasal verbs with out for removal: clear out, throw out, weed outPhrasal verbs with over for checking: go over, look over, read over

Common traps

Choosing go over because it makes a grammatical sentence — test each option against the purpose clause, not just the grammar.
Treating clear off as if it were clear out — they are different phrasal verbs.

A single sentence with a blank and four phrasal verbs.

The same format is also used at 16 Sep 2025, 9:00, English Q.8 (keyed shy away from) and 20 Sep 2025, 9:00, English Q.14 (keyed expand on).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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