SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 3 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 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 meaning of idiom: Won his laurels

(a)Achieved distinction or fame
(b)Lost everything
(c)Changed his opinion
(d)Saved money

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The image in the idiom is the laurel wreath, which in ancient Greece and Rome marked victory and honour.

To win one's laurels is to earn that honour: to achieve distinction or fame through one's work. The printed form, 'Won his laurels', puts the idiom in the past tense → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Lost everything — Lost everything reverses the idiom. Laurels are a prize, so winning them is a gain in standing, not a loss.
(c)
Changed his opinion — Changed his opinion has nothing to do with the wreath image. The idiom is about honour earned and says nothing about a shift in views.
(d)
Saved money — Saved money confuses honour with wealth. Laurels stand for recognition, not riches, so winning them says nothing about savings.

Concept

Idiom items reward knowing the image behind the phrase. Laurel (bay) leaves, woven into a wreath, crowned winners and honoured achievement in the classical world.

English keeps that image in more than one phrase. To win one's laurels is to earn distinction. To rest on one's laurels is to stop trying because of past success.

The same root gives laureate, one crowned with laurel, as in poet laureate or Nobel laureate.

Win and rest pull in opposite directions. Winning your laurels is praise for an achievement, while resting on them is a criticism of complacency, so read the verb before the noun.

Key facts

Win (or gain) one's laurels means to achieve distinction or fame.
Rest on one's laurels means to stop making an effort because of past success.
Laureate comes from Latin laureatus, 'crowned with laurel'.
In ancient Greece and Rome a laurel wreath was a mark of victory and honour.

Study next

The laurel idioms together: win one's laurels, rest on one's laurels, look to one's laurelsIdioms of achievement: a feather in one's cap, come off with flying colours, make one's mark

Common traps

Mixing up win one's laurels (praise for achievement) with rest on one's laurels (criticism for complacency)

The idiom is printed bare under 'Choose the correct meaning of idiom:', with no sentence around it.

The same stem is used at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.4 (Gall and wormwood) and 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.2 (Bury the hatchet). The next item, 18 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.4, uses it for Came of age.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Idioms and phrases — all 97 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.