SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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 most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: My friend lives in a village since 2015.

(a)living in a village from
(b)is living since
(c)has been living in a village since
(d)has lived in village from

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The trigger is since 2015: a point in the past, with the living still going on now.

An action that began at a past point and continues takes a perfect tense, not the simple present lives.

So lives becomes has been living; in a village and since stay as they are → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
living in a village from — living with no helping verb leaves the sentence with no finite verb: 'My friend living in a village from 2015' is not a sentence. And a start that runs to now takes since, not from.
(b)
is living since — is living is the present continuous, and since 2015 needs a perfect tense: has been living. Swapping in the whole option also drops in a village: 'My friend is living since 2015.'
(d)
has lived in village from — has lived is a sound perfect tense, but the option drops the article, in village, and swaps since for from, which marks a start and is usually paired with an end: from 2015 to 2020.

Concept

Since marks the point an action began: since 2015, since Monday, since she left.

With an action still going on, since pairs with a perfect tense:
Present perfect: She has lived here since 2015.
Present perfect continuous: She has been living here since 2015.

The simple present, lives, states a present fact only. It cannot reach back to a starting point.

Both has lived and has been living work with since for an ongoing state like living somewhere. Option (d) fails on in village and from, not on its tense.

Key facts

Since takes a point in time: since 2015, since morning, since she left.
For takes a period: for ten years, for two hours.
An action begun in the past and still continuing takes the present perfect or present perfect continuous, not the simple present.
A singular countable noun needs a determiner such as a or the: in a village, not in village.

Study next

Since and for with the present perfect continuous: has been waiting since 9 a.m., for two hoursPast perfect continuous for a period ending in the past: had been living there for five years when he movedArticles and determiners before singular countable nouns

Common traps

Keeping the simple present because the friend lives there now: since 2015 reaches back to a start, so the tense must be perfect
Choosing (d) for its perfect tense has lived without noticing the missing a and the from
Choosing (b) because is living sounds ongoing: a continuous present still cannot take since

At 09 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.20, the key keeps the perfect continuous and fixes the preposition: She has been studying for two o'clock → studying since two o'clock, a point on the clock.

At 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.15, a length of time takes for instead: The baby was sleeping since two hours → for two hours.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Sentence improvement — all 133 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.