SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 21 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.

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: The police is investigating the matter seriously.

(a)are investigating the matter seriously
(b)investigates the matter
(c)were investigating seriously the matter
(d)is in investigation

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The subject is police, a noun that is plural in English although it has no -s: the police are, the police have.

So the singular is has to become are. The rest of the highlighted part is sound and stays in place: investigating the matter seriously.

Plural verb, same tense, same word order: option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
investigates the matter — Investigates is singular, the same agreement error as is. It also turns the ongoing action into a simple present and drops seriously.
(c)
were investigating seriously the matter — Were fixes the number but moves the action into the past for no reason, and seriously now sits between the verb and its object, the matter.
(d)
is in investigation — Is keeps the agreement error. The idiom is under investigation, and it describes the thing being investigated, not the investigators; the matter also disappears.

Concept

Some nouns are plural without a plural ending. Police, cattle and people all take a plural verb: the police have arrested two men, the cattle are grazing, people are waiting.

That sets police apart from a collective noun such as committee or team, which can take a singular verb when the group acts as one unit.

For one member of the force, English uses police officer, which is singular.

Key facts

Police is a plural noun: the police are, the police have.
Cattle and people also take plural verbs.
Adverbs of manner do not normally go between a verb and its object: investigating the matter seriously, not investigating seriously the matter.
One member of the force is a police officer, which takes a singular verb.

Study next

Nouns that take a plural verb without a plural ending: police, cattle, peopleCollective nouns: when committee, team and jury take a singular or a plural verbAgreement with neither…nor and either…or: the verb follows the nearer subject

Common traps

Treating police like team or committee and keeping is because it names one body.
Fixing the verb but accepting an option that also changes the tense or the word order.

Agreement is also tested earlier in this paper, at 22 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.16, where 'Neither the manager nor the employees has submitted' is keyed as the error.

16 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.21 asks the same neither…nor agreement in this replace-the-highlighted-part frame, keyed were available.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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