SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 22 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.

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. The patient said, “It has been three days since I last slept.”

(a)The patient said that it was three days since he last slept.
(b)The patient said that it had been three days since he had last slept.
(c)The patient said that he didn’t sleep for three days.
(d)The patient said that he was not sleeping for three days.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. After the past reporting verb said, each verb in the quote moves one step back.

Present perfect has been → past perfect had been.
Past simple slept → past perfect had slept, with last between had and slept.
Pronoun: the patient's own I → he.

'It had been three days since he had last slept' → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The patient said that it was three days since he last slept. — Turns has been into was, a past simple. The present perfect moves back to the past perfect, had been. This option also leaves slept unshifted.
(c)
The patient said that he didn’t sleep for three days. — Rewrites instead of reporting. Didn't sleep for three days describes a finished past spell, drops the 'it has been … since' frame, and never reaches the past perfect.
(d)
The patient said that he was not sleeping for three days. — Was not sleeping is past continuous, which cannot carry a stretch of time running up to a point; that needs a perfect tense. It also drops the since-clause.

Concept

Indirect speech after a past reporting verb moves each tense one step back: present simple → past simple, present perfect → past perfect, past simple → past perfect.

This quote holds two verbs, so both move: has been → had been, slept → had slept. Here 'last' means most recently, not 'last week', so it stays as it is.

Everyday English does not always backshift a past simple, so 'since he last slept' is sometimes heard. The key applies the full rule to both verbs, and option (a) fails regardless: it changes has been to was.

Key facts

Present perfect → past perfect after a past reporting verb: has been → had been.
Past simple → past perfect after a past reporting verb: slept → had slept.
The speaker's I becomes he or she in the report: I last slept → he had last slept.
'It has been + period + since' measures time from an event up to the moment of speaking.

Study next

Backshift of the present perfect continuous: has been waiting → had been waitingSince with a point in time, for with a length of timeTime-word changes in reported speech: now → then, today → that day, last week → the previous week

Common traps

Changing has been to was — the present perfect moves back to the past perfect, not the past simple.
Rewording the sentence around for three days — reporting a statement changes tense, pronouns and time words, not the sentence's frame.

Present perfect → past perfect also decides 12 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.22: 'Have you done your homework?' becomes 'He asked me if I had done my homework.'

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.