SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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 correct one-word substitute for: 'A place where coins are made'.

(a)Smithy
(b)Foundry
(c)Mint
(d)Furnace

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The phrase names what is made in the place: coins.

A mint is a place where money is coined, especially under state authority. Smithy, foundry and furnace all belong to metalwork, but none of them is defined by making coins.

Place + coins = Mint → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Smithy — Smithy is a blacksmith's workshop, a forge where iron is heated and hammered into tools and horseshoes. It makes metal goods, not money.
(b)
Foundry — Foundry is a workshop or factory for casting metal in moulds. It names metal casting in general; the place defined by making coins is a mint.
(d)
Furnace — Furnace is an enclosed structure for heating material to very high temperatures. It is equipment inside a works, not the coin-making place the phrase asks for.

Concept

A substitute for 'a place where X is made' is decided by X. Here X is coins, and the English word for the place that makes them is mint.

The distractors come from metalwork, which is what makes them tempting. A smithy forges, a foundry casts, a furnace heats. None is tied to money.

Mint is also a verb: to mint a coin is to make it by stamping metal. Something in mint condition is as good as new.

Mint the herb is a different word. Mint for coins comes from Latin moneta, 'money', the source of the word money itself; the herb comes from Latin mentha.

Key facts

A mint is a place where money is coined, especially under state authority.
A smithy is a blacksmith's workshop, or forge.
A foundry is a workshop or factory for casting metal.
Mint, for coins, and money both come from Latin moneta.

Study next

Other 'place where' substitutes, such as aviary (birds), apiary (bees), orchard (fruit trees) and granary (grain)Coin vocabulary, such as numismatics (the study of coins) and numismatist (a person who studies or collects coins)

Common traps

Choosing Foundry because coins are metal and a foundry works metal
Choosing Smithy because it sounds like a workshop that makes small metal objects

A 'place where' substitute also appears at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.2 ('A place where birds are kept', keyed Aviary) and at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.9 ('A place where fruit trees are grown', keyed Orchard).

Coins are the subject at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2: 'The study of coins', keyed Numismatics.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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