SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 24 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 16 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.

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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: The suddenness with which the issue escalated (1)/ took not only the negotiators but also the observers (2)/ by surprise who were expecting (3)/ a gradual resolution process. (4)

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

Answer

Why

Correct — C. A relative clause should stand as close as possible to the noun it describes. Here who were expecting a gradual resolution describes the observers.

In the printed order it follows by surprise, so who seems to point to surprise, and a surprise expects nothing. The idiom took ... by surprise has cut the clause off from its noun.

Repair: took by surprise not only the negotiators but also the observers who were expecting a gradual resolution process → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(1) — with which is correct. The issue escalated with suddenness, so the phrase becomes 'the suddenness with which the issue escalated', as in 'the speed with which'.
(b)
(2) — not only the negotiators but also the observers is a balanced pair, a noun phrase after each half, and took in the past matches escalated. Nothing here is wrong.
(d)
(4) — a gradual resolution process is a sound object for expecting: a before the consonant sound of gradual, and the modifiers in front of the noun process.

Concept

In a long sentence a relative clause can drift away from its noun. The rule: keep who, which or that as close as possible to the noun it describes, its antecedent.

Test it by asking what the nearest noun before the pronoun is. Here it is surprise, and who refers to people.

The fix moves the idiom's second half, by surprise, so that observers and who meet again.

Every part reads naturally on its own, which is what makes this item hard. The fault shows only when you ask which noun who attaches to.

Key facts

Place a relative pronoun as close as possible to its antecedent, the noun it describes.
Who refers to people, and which refers to things.
Take someone by surprise: to catch someone unprepared.

Study next

Misplaced modifiers and relative clausesMoving a long object after a short phrase: took by surprise not only X but also YNot only ... but also: the same kind of unit after each half

Common traps

Marking part (2) on sight of not only ... but also. Both halves carry a noun phrase, so the pair is balanced.
Reading who with the observers because you know what the writer meant. The word order puts who after surprise, and that is what the item tests.

A correlative pair also spans the parts at 23 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.16, but there the pair itself is the fault: 'not merely public dissatisfaction' against 'but also that the media has', keyed part (3).

Here the pair is sound and the fault is the stranded who-clause.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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