SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 12 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 11 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.

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: It was not until the second report (1)/ was leaked to the press (2)/ did the ministry issue (3)/ a formal clarification. (4)

(a)(1)
(b)(2)
(c)(3)
(d)(4)

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Part (1) opens a cleft sentence: It was not until X. That frame is completed by that, and the clause after that keeps normal order, subject before verb.

Part (3) inverts instead, did the ministry issue, the order English uses when Not until itself opens the sentence.

The repair is "that the ministry issued a formal clarification" → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(1) — It was not until is a correct cleft opening, and the key keeps it. The fault lies in part (3), which answers this frame with the wrong word order.
(b)
(2) — was leaked to the press is a correct past simple passive, in step with the past was of the opening frame. Nothing in it needs changing.
(d)
(4) — a formal clarification is the object of issue, a noun phrase with a correct article and adjective. The sentence ends cleanly.

Concept

Two correct shapes exist, and this sentence mixes them.

Fronted negative: Not until the report was leaked did the ministry issue a clarification. The negative opens the sentence, so the auxiliary did comes before the subject.

Cleft: It was not until the report was leaked that the ministry issued a clarification. The negative sits inside It was ... that, so the main clause keeps normal order.

The mix could also be cured from the front, by cutting It was from part (1) to leave Not until ... did.

The key places the error in part (3), which answers the It was frame the sentence has already set up.

Key facts

Not until X did Y: inversion, because the negative opens the sentence.
It was not until X that Y: a cleft, with normal word order after that.
No sooner had X than Y: inversion after a negative opener, completed by than.

Study next

Inversion after Hardly, Scarcely and No sooner, and the linking word each takesCleft sentences for emphasis: It was ... that, It is ... whoInversion after Only then, Only after and Never before

Common traps

Accepting did the ministry issue because Not until ... did is a familiar pattern, without noticing It was in front of it
Blaming part (2), where was leaked is a correct past passive

Inversion after a negative opener is tested at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.9: No sooner had he entered the room than the fire alarm went off.

19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.12 keeps the inversion No sooner did Mr. Piyahri Mishra finish and corrects that to than.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 86 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.