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

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: No sooner the results were announced (1)/ than the shareholders (2)/ started questioning the management's (3)/ strategic decisions. (4)/

(a)(1)
(b)(2)
(c)(3)
(d)(4)

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The trigger is No sooner at the head of the clause. A negative opener forces inversion: the auxiliary comes before the subject, as in a question.

Part (1) reads 'No sooner the results were announced', with the subject before the verb. It should be No sooner had the results been announced (or No sooner were the results announced) → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
(2) — Than is the right partner for no sooner, because sooner is a comparative. When or then in this slot would be the error, not than.
(c)
(3) — Started questioning is sound: start takes an -ing form or a to-infinitive, and the possessive management's correctly marks whose decisions are meant.
(d)
(4) — Strategic decisions completes the object, the management's strategic decisions, with no fault of number, article or form.

Concept

No sooner ... than says one event followed another at once. It has two fixed parts.

First, inversion: because no sooner is a negative opener, the clause after it takes question word order, No sooner had the results been announced.

Second, than, not when or then, because sooner is a comparative. The second clause keeps normal order and the simple past: than the shareholders started questioning.

Two repairs work: No sooner had the results been announced (past perfect) or No sooner were the results announced (simple past). Both invert, and both fix part (1).

Key facts

No sooner + auxiliary + subject ... than: No sooner had I sat down than the phone rang.
Hardly and scarcely pair with when, not than.
Negative openers such as never, seldom, rarely and not only also force inversion.

Study next

Inversion after never, seldom, rarely, little and not onlyNo sooner ... than against hardly or scarcely ... whenOnly then, only after, only when with inversion

Common traps

Checking part (2) for than and passing part (1), because the missing inversion reads like ordinary word order.
Repairing it as 'No sooner the results had been announced', which still leaves the subject before the auxiliary.

The same inversion is tested as a blank at 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.9: 'No sooner ___ the findings published than critics began questioning their legitimacy', keyed had.

The than half is tested at 12 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.20, where 'No sooner had I reached the station when the train departed' is corrected to than.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Error spotting — all 121 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.