SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 6 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.

Instruction: Identify the judgements that must hold for the statement to be valid, then choose the correct option. Statement: In an attempt to modernize agricultural output, the government has introduced AI-based crop surveillance tools in rural zones with high farmer suicide rates. Judgements: 1.Traditional methods of crop monitoring are entirely ineffective. 2.Technological interventions may indirectly improve farmer well-being.

(a)Only judgement 1 follows
(b)Only judgement 2 follows
(c)Both 1 and 2 follow
(d)Neither 1 nor 2 follows

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: a judgement must hold only if the statement would not make sense without it.

Judgement 2: the tools go to zones with high farmer suicide rates. Picking those zones makes sense only if the tools may help farmers' well-being. It holds.

Judgement 1: modernizing needs the old methods to be improvable, not entirely ineffective. It does not hold → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Only judgement 1 follows — Entirely ineffective is stronger than the statement needs. The government can modernize monitoring that works, only less well.
(c)
Both 1 and 2 follow — Judgement 2 holds, but judgement 1's entirely goes beyond the statement, so 'both' fails.
(d)
Neither 1 nor 2 follows — The choice of high farmer suicide zones is the clue: it assumes the tools may help farmers, so judgement 2 must hold.

Concept

This is the assumption format under another name: a judgement that must hold for the statement to be valid. Test each one by negating it.

If technology could not improve farmer well-being in any way, sending it to high-suicide zones would have no point, so judgement 2 is needed. If traditional methods work to some degree, modernizing still makes sense, so judgement 1 is not needed.

Judgement 2 is hedged with may and 'indirectly', which makes it easy to hold. Judgement 1 claims entirely, and the statement gives no ground for that.

Key facts

A judgement must hold if negating it leaves the statement pointless.
An absolute word such as 'entirely' needs the statement to support it outright.
A hedged claim with 'may' needs only a plausible link to the statement.

Study next

Statement and assumption items with three assumptionsStatement and conclusion itemsSeparating a stated purpose from an unstated motive

Common traps

Accepting judgement 1 because 'modernize' sounds as if the old way failed
Rejecting judgement 2 because the statement never mentions well-being in words

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.6 uses the same instruction with assumptions in place of judgements (keyed a).

18 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.4 keeps the obvious purpose and rejects the extra motive: that lower prices will attract passengers is implicit, that the railway wants to compete with airlines is not (keyed a).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Critical thinking — all 23 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.