SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 4 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.

Choose the correct meaning of idiom: Gall and wormwood

(a)Lingering curiosity
(b)Harmless envy
(c)Sudden realization or enlightenment
(d)Deep frustration or resentment

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Gall and wormwood means bitterness and resentment, or the thing that causes them: His rival's promotion was gall and wormwood to him.

Both words name bitter things. Gall is bile, and wormwood is an intensely bitter herb. Together they stand for deep, bitter resentment → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Lingering curiosity — Lingering curiosity is a wish to know that will not go away. The idiom is built from two bitter substances, and curiosity carries no bitterness.
(b)
Harmless envy — Harmless envy fails on the word harmless. The idiom names deep, souring bitterness, not a mild or passing feeling.
(c)
Sudden realization or enlightenment — Sudden realization or enlightenment describes a flash of understanding. Gall and wormwood stand for bitterness, not insight, so the sense is wrong.

Concept

An idiom item tests a fixed phrase with a figurative meaning. Here the figure is taste: gall and wormwood are both intensely bitter.

Gall is bile, the bitter fluid made by the liver. Wormwood is the herb Artemisia absinthium, used to make absinthe.

The pairing comes from the King James Bible. Deuteronomy 29:18 warns against 'a root that beareth gall and wormwood', a root that yields bitterness.

The key pairs two feelings. Resentment is the half that matches the idiom's bitterness. Frustration, the annoyance of being blocked, is the looser half, but none of the other options comes near the sense.

Key facts

Gall and wormwood means bitterness and resentment.
Gall is bile, a bitter fluid made by the liver.
Wormwood is an intensely bitter herb, Artemisia absinthium, used in absinthe.
The pairing comes from Deuteronomy 29:18 in the King James Bible.

Study next

Idioms of offended or angry feeling, such as in high dudgeon and fly off the handleIdioms from the King James Bible, such as the salt of the earth and a thorn in the fleshThe other sense of gall, impudence, as in to have the gall to ask

Common traps

Picking Harmless envy because envy sounds close to resentment, without noticing that harmless contradicts the idiom's bitterness
Reading gall as impudence, the sense in to have the gall to ask, and looking for an option about nerve or cheek

An idiom of offended feeling appears at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.11: To be in high dudgeon, keyed To be offended with exaggerated dignity.

For sudden anger rather than lasting bitterness, compare 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.3: Fly off the handle, keyed To become suddenly angry.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Idioms and phrases — all 71 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.