SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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.

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: He is sleeping when I called him.

(a)has been sleeping
(b)was sleeping when I called
(c)is slept
(d)has slept

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is called, simple past, in the when-clause. It fixes the moment in the past, so the main verb must be past too.

The sleeping was already under way when the call came. An action in progress at a past moment takes the past continuous: was sleeping.

The highlighted part is is sleeping when I called, and (b) replaces all of it: He was sleeping when I called him → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
has been sleeping — Has been sleeping is present perfect continuous, which cannot sit with a finished past moment. Swapped in for the whole highlighted part, it also drops when I called and leaves He has been sleeping him.
(c)
is slept — Is slept is a passive, as though sleep were done to him, when he is the one sleeping. It also keeps the present-tense is, which clashes with the past called.
(d)
has slept — Has slept is present perfect, which does not take a finished past time such as when I called. It also reports a completed sleep, not one in progress at the moment of the call.

Concept

When two past actions meet, English puts the longer, ongoing one in the past continuous and the short one that interrupts it in the simple past: I was cooking when the bell rang.

Here when I called is the interruption. The main clause must say what was going on at that moment, and in the past: he was sleeping.

Is sleeping is present continuous. It describes now, so it cannot sit with a moment already fixed in the past.

Key facts

Past continuous (was/were + -ing) describes an action in progress at a past moment.
A simple-past when-clause can mark the event that interrupts it: He was sleeping when I called.
The present perfect (has slept, has been sleeping) is not used with a finished past time such as yesterday or when I called.

Study next

Past continuous against simple past in when and while clausesPresent perfect with time words: since and for, against yesterday and last weekSequence of tenses in complex sentences

Common traps

Picking has been sleeping because it keeps the -ing, when its present perfect cannot sit with a past moment
Choosing by tense alone without reading the option back in: (a), (c) and (d) each drop when I called and strand the object him

This item highlights a verb phrase whose tense clashes with a time clue in the same sentence. Find the clue first, here the simple-past called, then read the options.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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