SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 3 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.

Read the below statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Mark the correct options: Assertion (A): Gothic Revival buildings in colonial India often employed pointed arches and ribbed vaults. Reason(R): These elements were unknown in traditional European cathedrals.

(a)Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b)Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c)A is true, but R is false.
(d)A is false, but R is true.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Assertion true. Colonial India's Gothic Revival buildings, such as Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, took their forms from medieval Gothic, pointed arch included.

Reason false. Pointed arches and rib vaults were not unknown to European cathedrals. They are the defining features of medieval Gothic, which is exactly what a revival brings back → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A. — R is false, so it cannot explain A. Pointed arches and rib vaults were the hallmarks of medieval European cathedrals, not elements unknown to them.
(b)
Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A. — This needs R to be true, and it is not. The Gothic Revival used these elements precisely because medieval cathedrals had used them first.
(d)
A is false, but R is true. — A is true, not false. Colonial Gothic Revival, seen in Mumbai's Victorian Gothic buildings, borrowed the pointed arch and vaulting of medieval Gothic.

Concept

Gothic architecture grew up in medieval Europe. Its defining element is the pointed arch, which led to the pointed rib vault and the flying buttress, with tracery and stained-glass windows.

The Gothic Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries brought those forms back. The British carried it to India, where Bombay's Victorian Gothic buildings and the Indo-Gothic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, designed by Frederick William Stevens, carry it.

Key facts

The pointed arch is the defining design element of Gothic architecture.
The pointed rib vault and the flying buttress developed from the pointed arch.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai, was designed by Frederick William Stevens and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Study next

Indo-Saracenic architecture in colonial IndiaMumbai's Victorian Gothic and Art Deco buildings around the Oval MaidanAssertion–Reason items: judge A and R separately, then ask whether R explains A

Common traps

Reading 'Revival' as 'invention' — a revival brings back forms that already existed.
Marking (b) after checking A alone — R has to be tested on its own first.

Here a false Reason hides behind a true Assertion. Mumbai's Victorian Gothic buildings are also asked at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.1, which keys statements 1 and 3, including the Oval Maidan separating the Gothic and Art Deco styles.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Scientific Research — all 220 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.