SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 2 · 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 13 September 2026.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage :
Creativity, often misconstrued as a sporadic burst of inspiration, is in fact a cultivated disposition—a dynamic confluence of cognitive agility, emotional openness, and environmental stimuli. While society celebrates the mythos of the “lone genius,” true creativity thrives within a matrix of intentional practice, structural latitude, and psychological resilience. The fostering of creativity, therefore, necessitates a paradigmatic shift from product-centric appraisals to process-oriented cultivation. At its epistemic root, creativity involves the capacity to transcend conventional schemas and synthesize seemingly disparate elements into novel configurations. This process is neither arbitrary nor purely intuitive; it rests upon a foundation of deep domain knowledge, iterative exploration, and recursive reflection. Innovation emerges not in spite of constraints but often because of them—forcing the mind to navigate beyond linearity into realms of associative reasoning and metaphorical abstraction. Pedagogically, fostering creativity demands a disruption of didactic orthodoxy. Traditional models that valorize rote memorization and standardized testing engender cognitive rigidity, discouraging risk-taking and divergent thinking. Instead, educational paradigms must prioritize open-ended inquiry, collaborative problem-solving, and transdisciplinary exposure. The cultivation of creative potential is as much about unlearning ossified habits as it is about acquiring new competencies. Equally vital is the emotional ecology in which creativity is incubated. Psychological safety—a space where failure is reframed as experimentation rather than inadequacy—empowers individuals to take imaginative leaps. Fear, perfectionism, and external validation often corrode the creative impulse, replacing curiosity with compliance. Thus, fostering creativity is inseparable from nurturing emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. Cultural narratives, too, shape the horizons of creative possibility. Societies that stigmatize deviation from normative behavior tend to pathologize originality. Conversely, environments that valorize heterodoxy and intellectual risk often become fertile grounds for creative flourishing. This implies that fostering creativity is a sociocultural endeavor as much as an individual one—it requires dismantling hierarchies of value that privilege conformity over experimentation. Technological mediation further complicates the landscape. While digital tools democratize access to creative resources, they can also overwhelm cognitive bandwidth with passive consumption. The algorithmic curation of attention favors predictability and virality over nuance and depth. Therefore, intentional disengagement—spaces of solitude, boredom, and analog play—must be reclaimed as essential components of creative incubation. Ultimately, fostering creativity is not a linear prescription but a multilayered praxis. It entails cognitive elasticity, emotional resilience, epistemic humility, and cultural permission. It is a commitment to living in questions rather than chasing answers, to constructing meaning rather than consuming it.

What is the closest synonym for “ossified” as used in the line “...about unlearning ossified habits...”?

(a)Flexible
(b)Rigid
(c)Synthetic
(d)Tangential

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Ossified literally means turned into bone, and figuratively fixed and unable to change. The line is 'The cultivation of creative potential is as much about unlearning ossified habits as it is about acquiring new competencies.'

Habits that must be unlearned are set hard, and two sentences earlier the passage blames standardized models for cognitive rigidity. Rigid → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Flexible — Flexible is the antonym. Ossified habits resist change, and flexibility is what the passage wants in their place — 'cognitive elasticity', as it says near the end.
(c)
Synthetic — Synthetic means artificial, or formed by combining parts. The passage uses synthesize earlier for combining elements, but a habit that has to be unlearned is set hard, not artificial.
(d)
Tangential — Tangential means only slightly related, off the main point. It says nothing about how fixed a habit is, which is what ossified describes.

Concept

Ossify comes from Latin os, 'bone': to ossify is to turn into bone. Said of habits, ideas or institutions, it means to become rigid and resistant to change.

The context agrees. The habits are being unlearned, and the sentences around them set cognitive rigidity against open-ended inquiry.

Test a candidate back in the line: 'unlearning rigid habits' keeps the sense, while 'unlearning flexible habits' reverses it.

Ossify is also used literally in anatomy, where cartilage ossifies as bone forms. The passage speaks of habits, so only the figurative sense, rigid, applies.

Key facts

Ossify comes from Latin os, ossis, 'bone', and literally means to turn into bone.
Figuratively, ossified means fixed, rigid and resistant to change.
The passage links rigidity to schooling: standardized models 'engender cognitive rigidity'.

Study next

Words from Latin os (bone): ossify, osseous, ossicleSynonyms of rigid: inflexible, hidebound, entrenched, calcifiedSubstituting a synonym back into the passage line to test it

Common traps

Picking synthetic because the passage uses synthesize earlier — a word echo is not a meaning match.
Choosing flexible by reading the line as praise for the habits — they are being unlearned, not kept.

15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.22 asks the same way for 'banality' in '...threaten to flatten it into banality', keyed Triviality.

English Q.18 of this shift reads the same stretch of the passage, where standardized models 'engender cognitive rigidity'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Reading comprehension — all 128 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage :
Creativity, often misconstrued as a sporadic burst of inspiration, is in fact a cultivated disposition—a dynamic confluence of cognitive agility, emotional openness, and environmental stimuli. While society celebrates the mythos of the “lone genius,” true creativity thrives within a matrix of intentional practice, structural latitude, and psychological resilience. The fostering of creativity, therefore, necessitates a paradigmatic shift from product-centric appraisals to process-oriented cultivation. At its epistemic root, creativity involves the capacity to transcend conventional schemas and synthesize seemingly disparate elements into novel configurations. This process is neither arbitrary nor purely intuitive; it rests upon a foundation of deep domain knowledge, iterative exploration, and recursive reflection. Innovation emerges not in spite of constraints but often because of them—forcing the mind to navigate beyond linearity into realms of associative reasoning and metaphorical abstraction. Pedagogically, fostering creativity demands a disruption of didactic orthodoxy. Traditional models that valorize rote memorization and standardized testing engender cognitive rigidity, discouraging risk-taking and divergent thinking. Instead, educational paradigms must prioritize open-ended inquiry, collaborative problem-solving, and transdisciplinary exposure. The cultivation of creative potential is as much about unlearning ossified habits as it is about acquiring new competencies. Equally vital is the emotional ecology in which creativity is incubated. Psychological safety—a space where failure is reframed as experimentation rather than inadequacy—empowers individuals to take imaginative leaps. Fear, perfectionism, and external validation often corrode the creative impulse, replacing curiosity with compliance. Thus, fostering creativity is inseparable from nurturing emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. Cultural narratives, too, shape the horizons of creative possibility. Societies that stigmatize deviation from normative behavior tend to pathologize originality. Conversely, environments that valorize heterodoxy and intellectual risk often become fertile grounds for creative flourishing. This implies that fostering creativity is a sociocultural endeavor as much as an individual one—it requires dismantling hierarchies of value that privilege conformity over experimentation. Technological mediation further complicates the landscape. While digital tools democratize access to creative resources, they can also overwhelm cognitive bandwidth with passive consumption. The algorithmic curation of attention favors predictability and virality over nuance and depth. Therefore, intentional disengagement—spaces of solitude, boredom, and analog play—must be reclaimed as essential components of creative incubation. Ultimately, fostering creativity is not a linear prescription but a multilayered praxis. It entails cognitive elasticity, emotional resilience, epistemic humility, and cultural permission. It is a commitment to living in questions rather than chasing answers, to constructing meaning rather than consuming it.