SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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 form: The committee, along with its chairperson, ____ scheduled to meet on Monday.

(a)are
(b)is
(c)were
(d)have been

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The subject is The committee, singular. The phrase along with its chairperson, fenced off by commas, is an add-on and does not make the subject plural.

A committee meeting as one body takes a singular verb.

The committee is scheduled to meet on Monday → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
are — Are is plural. It treats 'along with its chairperson' as if it created a second subject, but a phrase joined by along with leaves the subject singular.
(c)
were — Were is plural. The subject, the committee, is singular, so even a past-tense version of the sentence would need was, not were.
(d)
have been — Have been is the plural form. A singular subject such as the committee needs has been, so have been fails on number just as are and were do.

Concept

Two rules meet in this sentence.

First, words joined to a subject by along with, together with, as well as or accompanied by do not change its number. The verb agrees with the noun before the phrase.

Second, a collective noun such as committee, team or jury takes a singular verb when the group acts as a single unit. Here the committee meets as one body, so the verb is singular.

In British English a collective noun can take a plural verb when its members are thought of individually, as in 'The committee are divided.' The key reads the committee as one body acting together, which takes the singular.

Key facts

A phrase introduced by along with, together with or as well as does not change the number of the subject.
A collective noun acting as one unit takes a singular verb: The team is ready.
Commas around 'along with its chairperson' signal that the phrase is an add-on to the subject.

Study next

Subject-verb agreement with as well as, together with and in addition toCollective nouns acting as a unit or as individualsEither...or and neither...nor, where the verb agrees with the nearer subject

Common traps

Counting the committee and its chairperson as two subjects and choosing a plural verb
Treating along with as if it were and: 'The committee and its chairperson are' is plural, but 'The committee, along with its chairperson, is' is not

The same along with rule is tested as an error at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.10: in 'The CEO along with his deputies were present', segment (2) is keyed as the error, because the CEO takes was.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 96 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.