SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · English Language and Comprehension · Question 3 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick 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. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

Choose the most appropriate option to fill the blank in the given sentence. Radium ___ rays that can damage the eyes.

(a)gives over
(b)gives up
(c)gives off
(d)gives away

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Give off means to send out or emit: heat, light, a smell, gas or radiation.

Radium is a radioactive element, and what it does with rays is emit them: Radium gives off rays that can damage the eyes.

The verb is the same in all four options, so the particle decides, and only off carries the sense of emitting. That is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
gives over — Give over means to hand something over to someone, or, in the passive, to set it aside for a use (a hall given over to exhibitions). Radium hands nothing over.
(b)
gives up — Give up means to stop doing something or to surrender it (give up smoking). Radium does not stop or surrender rays; it sends them out.
(d)
gives away — Give away means to hand out free, or to reveal a secret. Rays leaving radium are neither a gift nor a disclosure.

Concept

A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle, and the pair can mean something the verb alone does not. With give, the particle does all the work:

give off = emit (a smell, heat, radiation)
give up = stop, or surrender
give away = hand out free, or reveal
give over = hand over, or set aside for a use

Read the object of the blank first: rays are something a source emits.

Key facts

Give off: to emit heat, light, a smell, gas or radiation (the flowers gave off a sweet scent).
Give away: to give something free, or to reveal what was meant to be secret.
Give up: to stop doing something, or to surrender it (give up smoking).

Study next

Phrasal verbs with put: put off, put up with, put outPhrasal verbs with give: give in, give out, give wayPhrasal verbs with take: take off, take after, take up

Common traps

Choosing give away because the rays leave the radium: give away needs a sense of gift or disclosure.
Guessing from the verb when every option has the same verb: only the particle can decide.

The same frame, one verb with four particles, appears at 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.13, where put off (postpone) is keyed to replace the wrong put on in The wedding was put on until January.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 60 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.