SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 15 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 most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: The baby was sleeping since two hours.

(a)from two hours
(b)for two hours
(c)by two hours
(d)since two hour

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is two hours. It is a length of time, a period, not a point on the clock.

Since marks the point an action started: since 8 a.m., since Monday. A period takes for: for two hours, for three days.

So since two hours becomes for two hours → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
from two hours — from marks a starting point and needs a point after it: from 2 p.m., from Monday. Two hours is a length, not a start.
(c)
by two hours — by marks a deadline, as in by 5 p.m., or a margin, as in late by two hours. Neither says how long the baby slept.
(d)
since two hour — since two hour keeps the error and adds one. Since still needs a point in time, and two needs the plural hours.

Concept

Since and for both go with an action that has been running, but they take different objects.

Since + a point in time: since morning, since 2019, since she left.
For + a period: for an hour, for ten years, for a while.

Ask whether the phrase names a moment or a length. A clock time or a date is a moment; a number of hours or days is a length.

Only the highlighted words are yours to change, so the key fixes the preposition and leaves was sleeping alone.

Rewriting freely, a period that runs up to a moment in the past takes the past perfect continuous: The baby had been sleeping for two hours when the doorbell rang.

Key facts

Since takes a point in time: since 8 a.m., since Monday, since 2019.
For takes a period: for two hours, for three days.
From marks a starting point, often paired with to or till: from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
By marks a deadline or a margin: by 5 p.m., late by two hours.

Study next

Since and for with the present perfect continuous: has been studying since two o'clockPast perfect continuous for a period up to a past moment: had been sleeping for two hoursPrepositions of time: at, on, in, by, till

Common traps

Keeping since because it goes with a duration, without checking that two hours is a period and not a point
Choosing (d) because it keeps since, when it keeps the error and adds a number error
Choosing from two hours because from also marks a start, when it needs a point, not a length

The mirror image is keyed at 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.20: She has been studying for two o'clock → studying since two o'clock, a point on the clock taking since.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 98 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.