SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 21 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.

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. He said, “What are you doing?”

(a)He asked what are you doing.
(b)He asked what I had been doing.
(c)He asked what was I doing.
(d)He asked what I was doing.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. A reported wh-question makes four changes.

The reporting verb becomes asked, and 'what' itself links the clauses.
Question order 'are you doing' becomes statement order: subject before verb.
The listener 'you' becomes I, the narrator who was asked.
After past 'asked', present continuous 'are doing' backshifts to was doing.

Result: 'He asked what I was doing.' → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
He asked what are you doing. — Pastes the direct question after 'asked' unchanged: question order ('are you'), the present tense and 'you' all survive. Indirect speech needs 'what I was doing'.
(b)
He asked what I had been doing. — Backshifts two steps. Present continuous goes one step back, to was doing; 'had been doing' is the backshift for past continuous or present perfect continuous.
(c)
He asked what was I doing. — The tense is right but the order is not: was I keeps the question's verb-before-subject order. A reported question takes statement order — 'what I was doing'.

Concept

Indirect speech reports a question as a statement. The asking is carried by the reporting verb asked, so the reported clause drops question form: no inversion, no question mark.

A wh-question keeps its wh-word as the link. A yes/no question has none, so it takes if or whether: 'Are you busy?' → 'He asked if I was busy'.

The direct sentence names no listener. Each option that changes the pronoun writes I, so the report is told by the person who was asked.

Key facts

Present continuous backshifts to past continuous after a past reporting verb: are doing → was doing.
A reported question takes statement order: 'what I was doing', not 'what was I doing'.
Wh-questions keep the wh-word as the link, while yes/no questions take if or whether.
A reported question ends with a full stop, not a question mark.

Study next

Reporting yes/no questions with if or whetherBackshift of past simple and present perfect to past perfectReported questions with modals: can → could, will → would

Common traps

Keeping question order after the wh-word — 'what was I doing' has the right tense and the wrong word order.
Backshifting two steps — present continuous becomes 'was doing', not 'had been doing'.

The same wh-question pattern is tested at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.22: 'Why didn't you tell me the truth earlier?' becomes 'She asked why I hadn't told her the truth earlier', and the option keeping 'why hadn't I' is wrong.

Present continuous to past continuous also decides 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.22: 'I am not feeling well' → 'he was not feeling well'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 23 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.