SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 9 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 option: In light of recent discoveries, the theory has been subject to rigorous ___ and reinterpretation.

(a)scrutiny
(b)sanction
(c)insinuation
(d)subversion

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
The blank must name something done to a theory rigorously, side by side with reinterpretation, because of new discoveries.

Scrutiny means close, critical examination. New evidence sends a theory back for examination and then reinterpretation: 'subject to rigorous scrutiny and reinterpretation'.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
sanction — Sanction means official approval, or a penalty. New discoveries do not bring a theory rigorous approval or punishment; they bring re-examination.
(c)
insinuation — Insinuation is a sly, indirect hint of something unpleasant. It cannot be rigorous, and it is the opposite of the open, careful study the sentence describes.
(d)
subversion — Subversion is an attempt to undermine an established system or authority. It does not pair with reinterpretation as a scholarly response to new evidence.

Concept

In a single-blank vocabulary item, the words around the blank do the work. Look for collocations, words that habitually travel together.

Rigorous goes with scrutiny, testing, analysis and examination. The pair '___ and reinterpretation' asks for a noun of the same kind: something scholars do to a theory when evidence changes.

Sanction has two nearly opposite senses, official approval and a penalty. Neither sense describes examining a theory, which is why both readings fail here.

Key facts

Scrutiny: close, critical examination. The verb is scrutinise.
Rigorous: extremely thorough and careful.
Sanction can mean official permission or a penalty, two nearly opposite senses.
Insinuation: an unpleasant hint made indirectly.

Study next

Collocations with rigorous: rigorous testing, rigorous analysis, rigorous standardsWords with two opposite senses: sanction, oversight, cleave

Common traps

Picking sanction because 'subject to sanction' sounds familiar — read the whole frame, including 'rigorous' and 'and reinterpretation'.
Choosing subversion because a reinterpretation can overturn a theory — overturning on evidence is revision, not subversion.

The distractor insinuation is itself keyed at 9 Sep 2024, 9:00, English Q.14, as the synonym of Innuendo.

Scrutiny also appears in this shift's English Q.24, a parajumble on peer review: 'This external scrutiny helps to ensure that only high-quality, credible research is disseminated to the scientific community.'

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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