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

Rearrange the following sentences to form a meaningful passage: 1. International space law governs satellite placement and liability. 2. Treaties emerged during the Cold War to prevent militarization. 3. New challenges include space debris and commercial mining. 4. Regulation needs adaptation to current realities.

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

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The four sentences carry no pronoun links, so the order comes from time.

Emerged during the Cold War (2) is the origin and the set's one past-tense verb: it opens.
Governs (1) states the law as it stands now.
New challenges (3) are new against what 1 says the law covers: debris and mining, not placement and liability.
Needs adaptation (4) is the remedy, so it closes.

2-1-3-4 → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
1-3-4-2 — 1-3-4-2 closes on the Cold War history. Once 4 has called for adaptation the passage has reached its conclusion, and a step back to the treaties' origin is left hanging.
(c)
1-2-3-4 — 1-2-3-4 opens on the law as it stands, then steps back to the Cold War. The key reads the set as a timeline, and this order breaks it: present, past, then present again.
(d)
3-2-1-4 — 3-2-1-4 opens on 'New challenges', but new needs something earlier to be new against. An opening sentence has to set up the topic, not compare it with something unstated.

Concept

Sentence-ordering items are solved by the links between sentences: a pronoun and its noun, a word such as new or also that points back, a tense or date that fixes time.

This set has no pronouns, so the links are time words and tenses: emerged during the Cold War, governs, new, needs adaptation. Order the sentences by when each is true, then check that the last one concludes.

This is a judgement item. Order 1-2-3-4 also reads smoothly, because sentence 1 names the topic, space law, while 'Treaties' in sentence 2 does not say which treaties.

The key reads the set as a timeline instead, from the Cold War origin to what regulation needs now. This card follows that reading.

Key facts

Sentence 2 carries the set's one past-tense verb: 'Treaties emerged during the Cold War'.
'New challenges' needs an earlier state to be new against, so sentence 3 cannot open.
'Needs adaptation' answers the challenges in sentence 3, so 4 follows 3 and closes.

Study next

Chronological order as a signal in sentence orderingOpening-sentence tests: which sentence can stand firstProblem-and-remedy paragraph structure

Common traps

Opening with sentence 1 on reflex because it names the topic, without testing the time order the key follows.
Opening with 'New challenges' without asking what they are new against.

The same four sentences, with the same options and key (a), were set on 23 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.24.

For an ordering item decided by pronouns rather than time, see 24 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.25 on conflict resolution, keyed 2-3-1-4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Para jumbles — all 121 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.