SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · 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 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.

Select the correct option: He devoted himself to the cause ___ body and soul.

(a)with
(b)by
(c)in
(d)heart

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The verb's own preposition is already in place: devoted himself to the cause. The blank starts a new phrase that says how he did it.

With + noun is one way English builds a phrase of manner: with care, with ease, with all his heart. He devoted himself to the cause with body and soul → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
by — by marks a doer or a means, as in written by her or sent by post. By body and soul is not a phrase of manner.
(c)
in — in body and soul names a respect, as in sound in body and mind. It says what someone is, not how he gave himself to the cause.
(d)
heart — heart gives heart body and soul, three nouns with no and after the first. The fixed pair is heart and soul, and the blank sits before body.

Concept

Some prepositions belong to the verb, and some to the phrase after it. Devote takes to: devote yourself to a cause, to your work.

What follows is a phrase of manner, answering how. With + noun builds one: with care means carefully, and with body and soul means with everything you have.

Body and soul can also stand with no preposition: he devoted himself body and soul to the cause. The sentence has a blank to fill, so the choice is among the four words, and with is the one that makes a phrase of manner.

Key facts

Devote takes the preposition to: devote yourself to a cause.
With + noun can form a phrase of manner: with care means carefully.
Body and soul, used on its own as an adverb, means wholeheartedly.
Heart and soul is a separate fixed pair with the same sense of complete commitment.

Study next

Verbs with fixed prepositions: devote to, dedicate to, commit toPaired expressions of full effort: heart and soul, tooth and nail, might and main

Common traps

Choosing heart because heart and soul is familiar, without checking that the blank sits before body
Choosing in by analogy with sound in body and mind, which describes a state, not the manner of an action

A paired expression of full effort is keyed at 15 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.4: tooth and nail, with full force or vigour.

A verb's own preposition decides 15 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.7: aesthetics should not be subordinated to functionality.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 58 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.