SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 1 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 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.

Fill in the blank with the correctly spelt word. The new theory was dismissed as ________ by the mainstream scientific community.

(a)prepostrous
(b)preposterous
(c)preposturous
(d)preposteruos

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The blank follows dismissed as, so it holds the verdict on the theory. All four options aim at one word, preposterous: absurd, contrary to reason.

Spell it by syllables: pre-pos-ter-ous. The Latin source, praeposterus, means 'before-behind', putting last what should come first.

Preposterous is the option with both the -ter- and the -ous intact → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
prepostrous — Prepostrous drops the e of -ter-, leaving three written syllables. Said quickly the word can sound like that, but the spelling keeps all four: pre-pos-ter-ous.
(c)
preposturous — Preposturous writes the third syllable as -tur-, as in posture. The root is Latin posterus, 'coming after', so the spelling keeps -ter-.
(d)
preposteruos — Preposteruos swaps the last two vowels of the ending. The adjective suffix is -ous, as in famous and dangerous.

Concept

A correctly-spelt fill-in has two layers. The sentence fixes the meaning, and here every option is an attempt at the same word, so the item is decided on spelling alone.

Break a long word into syllables and check each one: pre / pos / ter / ous. Each wrong option damages one part: an e is dropped from the third syllable, the third syllable is respelt, or the ending is scrambled.

The root anchors the tricky middle: Latin posterus, 'coming after', also gives English posterity and posterior.

'Dismissed as' is followed by the verdict, an adjective or a noun: dismissed as preposterous, dismissed as nonsense. The sentence settles the meaning; the options differ in spelling alone.

Key facts

Preposterous means contrary to reason or common sense, utterly absurd.
It comes from Latin praeposterus, literally 'before-behind': prae, 'before', + posterus, 'coming after'.
Syllable by syllable it is pre-pos-ter-ous.
Posterity and posterior come from the same Latin posterus.

Study next

Spelling -ous adjectives with a tricky middle: mischievous, humorous, outrageousWords from Latin post, 'after': posterity, posterior, postponeOther words for absurd: ludicrous, farcical, outlandish

Common traps

Spelling the word as it can sound in quick speech, pre-pos-trous, and losing the e of -ter-
Letting posture pull the third syllable to -tur-
Checking only the start of each option: all four begin prepos-, and the errors sit in the last two syllables

The same frame, a sentence with a blank and four spellings of one word, is set at 20 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.1 (keyed resurrection).

21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.6 asks it with 'His ___ disregard for protocol', keyed blatant.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Spelling — all 118 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.