SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 13 of 98

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.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:
Global sustainability discourse has not so much evolved as ossified into a lexicon of managerial (1) _____—terms engineered more for reputational lubrication than ecological redress. What was once a moral reckoning with planetary precarity now traffics in dashboards and metrics, calibrated less to redistribute power than to launder it. Words like “resilience,” ”stakeholder engagement,” and “net-zero” populate position papers, their meanings stretched until they acquire the elasticity of (2) _____.In this semantic economy, language ceases to be revelatory and becomes performative. Reports teeter on euphemism; declarations bristle with procedural piety. Crises are not named; they are (3) _____ into ‘developmental challenges.’ The grammar of suffering is bleached, even as the facts remain uncompromising. What emerges is not truth, but a choreography of credibility—an affective simulation of care. Meanwhile, epistemic asymmetries persist: indigenous knowledge is (4) _____ as “local insight,” offered just enough space to decorate, never to reorient. Environmental justice, once confrontational, now wears a diplomatic smile, folded neatly into intergovernmental communiqués. If sustainability is to escape the orbit of self-congratulation, it must surrender its obsession with optics and inhabit the discomfort of history. Anything less is not stewardship—it is semantic (5) _____ masquerading as progress.

What should come in the place of blank number (5)?

(a)inflation
(b)camouflage
(c)paralysis
(d)betrayal

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The sentence reads: "Anything less is not stewardship—it is semantic (5) _____ masquerading as progress."

The trigger is masquerading, wearing a disguise. The blank needs a word for language that hides what it is, and camouflage is disguise that conceals by blending in.

It also sums up the passage, which has already charged the discourse with euphemism, 'an affective simulation of care' and an 'obsession with optics' → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
inflation — Inflation would mean words losing value through overuse, close to the stretched meanings of blank (2). But the final sentence is about disguise, 'masquerading as progress', and inflation names no concealment.
(c)
paralysis — Paralysis means inability to act. The passage describes plenty of activity, dashboards, reports and declarations, all aimed at appearances, so its charge is concealment, not inaction.
(d)
betrayal — Betrayal is a breach of trust, a moral charge that does not match masquerading. The passage's images are of disguise: justice that 'wears a diplomatic smile', 'an affective simulation of care'.

Concept

Camouflage is concealment by blending in, like a soldier's uniform or an animal's markings. Figuratively, it is anything that hides the real nature of something behind a familiar surface.

Semantic camouflage is disguise made of words. The passage has built this case line by line: reports that 'teeter on euphemism', suffering 'bleached', 'a choreography of credibility'.

The last sentence names the device outright: words dressed up as progress.

Inflation is the strongest distractor, because the passage did complain that meanings were stretched. The verb masquerading settles it: a masquerade is a disguise, and camouflage is the one option that means disguise.

Key facts

Camouflage: concealment by blending in with the surroundings, used literally and figuratively.
Masquerade (verb): to pretend to be someone or something else.
Stewardship: responsible care of something entrusted to you, such as the environment.

Study next

Disguise vocabulary: masquerade, facade, veneer, window dressingReading the last sentence of a passage as its summary

Common traps

Choosing inflation because it echoes the stretched meanings of blank (2), and missing that masquerading asks for a disguise.
Choosing betrayal for its angry tone, without matching the noun to the verb masquerading.

Camouflage also appears at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.4, as a correctly spelt option in a misspelt-word item keyed Indispensible.

Blank (2) of this passage, 22 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.10, is keyed rhetoric: the stretched meanings that inflation would echo.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:
Global sustainability discourse has not so much evolved as ossified into a lexicon of managerial (1) _____—terms engineered more for reputational lubrication than ecological redress. What was once a moral reckoning with planetary precarity now traffics in dashboards and metrics, calibrated less to redistribute power than to launder it. Words like “resilience,” ”stakeholder engagement,” and “net-zero” populate position papers, their meanings stretched until they acquire the elasticity of (2) _____.In this semantic economy, language ceases to be revelatory and becomes performative. Reports teeter on euphemism; declarations bristle with procedural piety. Crises are not named; they are (3) _____ into ‘developmental challenges.’ The grammar of suffering is bleached, even as the facts remain uncompromising. What emerges is not truth, but a choreography of credibility—an affective simulation of care. Meanwhile, epistemic asymmetries persist: indigenous knowledge is (4) _____ as “local insight,” offered just enough space to decorate, never to reorient. Environmental justice, once confrontational, now wears a diplomatic smile, folded neatly into intergovernmental communiqués. If sustainability is to escape the orbit of self-congratulation, it must surrender its obsession with optics and inhabit the discomfort of history. Anything less is not stewardship—it is semantic (5) _____ masquerading as progress.