SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · 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.

Consider the following statement and choose the option that follows. Statement: The railway authority decided to reduce ticket prices on long-distance trains. Assumptions: I. Lower prices will attract more passengers. II. The authority wants to compete with airlines.

(a)Only I is implicit
(b)Only II is implicit
(c)Both are implicit
(d)Neither is implicit

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: an assumption is what the decision takes for granted. Deny it and the decision loses its point.

I denied: cheaper tickets draw no extra passengers. The same travellers just pay less, so the fare cut depends on I. Implicit.

II denied: the authority is not thinking of airlines. A cheaper fare can still aim at more rail passengers, so the decision stands. Not implicit.

Only I is implicit → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Only II is implicit — Only II reverses the result. The statement never mentions airlines, and a fare cut makes sense without them. What it cannot do without is I, that lower fares bring passengers.
(c)
Both are implicit — Both would need II too. Competing with airlines is one possible motive, but the decision still makes sense if the authority has no airline in mind.
(d)
Neither is implicit — Neither ignores I. Without expecting lower fares to attract more passengers, the railway has no evident reason to cut them.

Concept

A statement-assumption item asks what the speaker must already believe for the statement to make sense. The test is negation: deny the assumption and see whether the statement still stands.

A motive the statement never mentions, like beating airlines, is a possibility, not an assumption, when the statement stays sensible without it.

The two assumptions differ in scope. I is general, about what lower fares do to demand. II names one rival, airlines, that the statement never mentions. A named detail the statement does not supply is the part to test hardest.

Key facts

An assumption is implicit if denying it makes the statement pointless.
A possible motive is not an assumption when the statement makes sense without it.
A detail the statement never mentions, such as a named rival, needs the strongest check.

Study next

Statement-conclusion items, which ask what follows rather than what is taken for grantedStatement and course-of-action itemsThree-assumption versions with options such as Only I and II are implicit

Common traps

Marking II because competing with airlines is a sensible guess at the motive
Treating a likely result of the decision as the same thing as its assumption

15 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.10 asks the same with three assumptions about electric-vehicle subsidies, keyed Only I and II are implicit (option a).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Critical thinking — all 9 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.