SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 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 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.

Select the correct option: Far from being a liability, his dissenting views often served as a ___ to complacency within the group.

(a)counterweight
(b)detriment
(c)digression
(d)repudiation

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The opener Far from being a liability means 'not a liability at all, quite the reverse'. So the blank must cast his views as an asset.

The noun is followed by to complacency: his views worked against the group's self-satisfaction.

A counterweight is a force that balances or offsets another, and it takes to: a counterweight to something. Dissent offsetting complacency → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
detriment — Detriment means harm or damage, as in 'to the detriment of his health'. It would cast the views as harmful again, which 'Far from being a liability' has just denied.
(c)
digression — Digression is a wandering away from the main subject in speech or writing. Dissent that checks complacency is not a departure from a topic, and 'a digression to complacency' gives no sense.
(d)
repudiation — Repudiation means rejection, and it takes of: a repudiation of the charges. The blank is followed by to, and counterweight fits both the preposition and the balancing sense.

Concept

Far from being X is a contrast opener. It denies X firmly and points to the opposite, so 'Far from being a liability' promises that his views were an asset.

Complacency is smug self-satisfaction, especially the kind that is blind to risks.

A counterweight is literally a weight that balances another, as in a lift or a crane. Figuratively it is any force that offsets another, which is what dissent does to complacency.

Repudiation comes closest in sense, since dissent can reject complacency. It is the preposition to that settles the choice for counterweight.

Key facts

Far from being X: not X at all, and in fact the opposite.
Counterweight: a force or influence that balances or offsets another. It takes to.
Complacency: smug self-satisfaction, especially one blind to risks.
Repudiation takes of: a repudiation of the charges.

Study next

Noun and preposition pairs: counterweight to, antidote to, check on, repudiation ofContrast openers that reverse a sentence's direction: far from, instead of, rather than

Common traps

Choosing detriment because liability is in the sentence, when 'Far from' has just denied that sense
Choosing repudiation on meaning alone and missing that it takes of, not to

The idea in this sentence, dissent as a check on group conformity, is the keyed answer at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.19, where the passage's remedy for groupthink is encouraging constructive dissent.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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