SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 7 of 99

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 one-word substitution for the italicized part: Ravi has always been a person who vehemently opposes authority, control, or tradition, often challenging every rule set before him.

(a)Conformist
(b)Anarchist
(c)Optimist
(d)Traditionalist

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The italicized part describes a person who vehemently opposes authority, control, or tradition and challenges every rule.

An anarchist is a person who rebels against authority, established order or ruling power. The word is Greek an- (without) + arkhos (ruler): someone who will have no ruler.

Opposition to authority and its rules is the core of both → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Conformist — Conformist is the reverse: a person who follows accepted rules and customs. Ravi challenges every rule, so he is the opposite of a conformist.
(c)
Optimist — Optimist describes outlook, not attitude to authority: a person who expects things to turn out well. Nothing in the italicized part is about hope.
(d)
Traditionalist — Traditionalist means someone who upholds tradition, while Ravi opposes it. The option names the very thing the description rejects.

Concept

In a one-word substitution, find the core idea of the description first, then test the options against it. Here it is opposition to authority and rules.

The root arch means ruler or rule: monarchy (rule by one), oligarchy (rule by a few), patriarch. The prefix an- means without, so anarchy is a state without government or authority, and an anarchist rejects authority.

Conformist and Traditionalist stand for the opposite attitude, and Optimist is off the subject.

In politics an anarchist is someone who wants the state and its government abolished. The stem uses the broader everyday sense, a person who rebels against authority, control or tradition, which dictionaries also record.

Key facts

Anarchist: a person who rebels against authority, or in politics, one who wants government abolished.
It comes from Greek an- (without) + arkhos (ruler).
Conformist: a person who follows accepted rules and customs.
Traditionalist: a person who upholds tradition.

Study next

Words for people who resist: dissident (opposes official policy), rebel, iconoclast (attacks cherished beliefs)Kinds of government by root: monarchy, oligarchy, autocracy, democracy

Common traps

Latching on to tradition in the description and choosing Traditionalist, which means the opposite
Rejecting Anarchist as a purely political label, when it also covers anyone who rebels against authority

Here the description sits in a sentence, with the phrase to replace in italics. A near neighbour is keyed at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.8: "A person who opposes official policy" is a Dissident.

Anarchy is a wrong option at 23 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.6, where a government ruled by a single person with absolute power is keyed Autocracy.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: One-word substitution — all 125 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.