SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 7 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 correct one-word substitute for: 'A person who doubts the sincerity or goodness of others'.

(a)Optimist
(b)Cynic
(c)Realist
(d)Pessimist

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is doubts the sincerity or goodness of others: the doubt is aimed at other people's motives.

A cynic believes people act mainly out of self-interest, so a cynic distrusts their claims of sincerity or goodness → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Optimist — An optimist expects things to turn out well. That is hope about outcomes, the reverse of doubting other people's goodness.
(c)
Realist — A realist accepts things as they are and deals with them practically. Realism is not defined by distrust of other people's sincerity.
(d)
Pessimist — A pessimist expects the worst to happen. The gloom is about outcomes, while the definition is about doubting people's motives, which is what cynic names.

Concept

A one-word substitution gives a definition and asks for the word it names. Find what the definition is about: here, other people's sincerity and goodness.

That separates cynic from its neighbours. An optimist and a pessimist differ in what they expect to happen, and a realist is defined by accepting facts as they are.

A cynic is defined by distrust of human motives. A sceptic, by contrast, doubts whether claims are true.

The word comes from the Cynics, a school of ancient Greek philosophers who scorned wealth and social convention. The modern sense, distrust of people's motives, is the one the definition gives.

Key facts

Cynic: a person who believes people are motivated mainly by self-interest.
The adjective is cynical and the attitude is cynicism.
A sceptic doubts whether claims are true, while a cynic doubts people's motives.
A pessimist expects the worst outcome.

Study next

Attitude nouns: sceptic, stoic, misanthrope, pessimistCredulous and gullible, the opposites of cynical

Common traps

Choosing Pessimist because both words sound negative. A pessimist expects bad outcomes, and a cynic distrusts people's motives.
Confusing cynic with sceptic, who doubts claims rather than motives.

Cynic is the keyed word at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.7, for 'indifferent to or distrustful of human integrity or morality'.

It is a wrong option at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.8, keyed Stoic.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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