SSC CHSL Tier 1 2016 English Comprehension Questions with Solutions

Explanation

The verb to contrive means to plan, design, invent, or bring something into existence through ingenuity or skill.

Conversely, the verb to raze means to completely demolish, destroy, or level a building or structure to the ground. Since to contrive involves the act of creating or constructing, and to raze involves the act of destroying or bringing down, they function as direct antonyms.

Explanation

The word captivating means holding the attention of someone by being extremely interesting, beautiful, or charming. In the context of the sentence, the natural beauty and soothing movement of a waterfall are described as something that holds people's attention so completely that they can sit and watch it for hours. This makes captivating the most appropriate and semantically fitting word to fill the blank.

Explanation

Aerating is the process of circulating air through, mixing it with, or dissolving it in a liquid or substance. This process introduces oxygen or other gases into the medium, commonly used in water treatment, soil management, and culinary applications to improve physical properties or facilitate chemical and biological reactions.

Explanation

The idiom "to go down like a lead balloon" is used to describe a speech, proposal, joke, or idea that is completely unsuccessful and poorly received by an audience. It draws a comparison to a balloon made of lead, which, instead of floating, falls rapidly and heavily to the ground, symbolizing an immediate failure to generate interest, amusement, or support.

Explanation

The word pate refers to a person's head, particularly the crown or the top of the head. Similarly, dome is used as an informal or colloquial term for a person's head. Both words share this anatomical definition, making them synonyms.

Explanation

The idiom "to get one's walking papers" means to be dismissed or fired from a job, or to be told that one is no longer wanted and must depart from a place or relationship. It represents a formal notice of termination or discharge, indicating that a person has been given orders or permission to leave.

Explanation

When the reporting verb is in the present tense (such as says), the tense of the verb in the reported speech does not change when converting from direct to indirect speech. The first-person pronoun I changes to the third-person pronoun he to agree with the subject Jay. The verb eat then becomes eats to maintain agreement with the singular pronoun he. Thus, the indirect speech remains in the present simple tense as Jay says that he eats a guava.

Explanation

In standard English collocations, candidates or students take a test or an exam, whereas teachers or examiners give or administer the test. Since the subject of the sentence is candidates, the correct verb to use in this context is take.

Explanation

The sentence requires the grammatical rule of parallelism. In a list of items, all elements must share the exact same grammatical form to maintain balance and clarity. Here, the subject Tanveer is linked to a series of attributes: wisdom (noun) and charm (noun). To maintain parallel structure, the third item in the sequence must also be a noun or a noun phrase. Replacing the bracketed clause with "a good" completes the list with "a good sense of humour," which acts as a noun phrase and aligns perfectly with the preceding nouns.

Explanation

The word ague historically refers to a fever or shivering fit, which is the most characteristic symptom of malaria. In older medical literature and common parlance, ague was widely used as a direct synonym for malaria, particularly when describing the alternating hot and cold stages of the disease.

Explanation

The verb to impair means to weaken, damage, or diminish the quality, strength, or value of something. Conversely, the verb to mend means to repair, restore, or make something whole or better after it has been damaged. Because to mend represents the act of fixing or restoring, it serves as the direct antonym to the act of impairing.

Explanation

The word dowagers is spelled correctly. A dowager refers to a widow who holds a title, property, or position of honor derived from her deceased husband. The term is also used more broadly to describe an elderly woman of high social standing and dignity. The correct spelling of its plural form is d-o-w-a-g-e-r-s.

Explanation

The word clack refers to making a sharp, abrupt sound or a rapid series of such sounds when a hard object strikes another. It is an onomatopoeic term that mimics the actual sound produced by the collision of hard materials.

Explanation

The given active voice sentence is in the simple past tense, which follows the structure: Subject + second form of verb (V2) + Object. When converting a simple past sentence into passive voice, the structure changes to: Object + was/were + past participle form of verb (V3) + by + Subject. Since the object "the car" is singular, it is paired with the auxiliary verb "was" and the past participle "bought", resulting in the correct passive construction.

Explanation

The phrasal verb used to describe an aircraft leaving the ground and beginning to fly is take off, which becomes took off in the past tense. Part B incorrectly uses the preposition of instead of off. Replacing of with off restores the correct phrasal verb took off and makes the sentence grammatically correct.

Explanation

The phrase "in between" is redundant when followed by an explicit object. The preposition "between" should be used on its own when specifying the people or things involved. Therefore, "in" must be omitted from part A to make the sentence grammatically correct as "This is between you and me".

Explanation

The word stabling is spelled correctly. It is the present participle form of the verb stable, which means to put or keep an animal, particularly a horse, in a stable. It also functions as a noun referring to the accommodation or housing provided for horses or railway vehicles.

Explanation

The noun calamity denotes an event causing great and often sudden damage, distress, or disaster on a massive scale. Since a hurricane is a severe natural disaster capable of widespread devastation, loss of life, and massive displacement, calamity fits perfectly in this context to describe an event of such catastrophic proportions that it affects millions of people.

Explanation

The verb participate is idiomatically followed by the preposition in when indicating taking part or being involved in an activity, event, or process. In this context, citizens are taking part in the multiple transactions of society, making in the grammatically correct preposition to complete the sentence.

Explanation

The correlative comparative structure of equality for uncountable nouns, such as weight, is formulated as "as much + noun + as". Since the second "as" is already present in the sentence after the noun "weight", the blank must only be filled with "as much" to complete the comparative construction "as much weight as".

Explanation

In the sentence, the comparative phrase evaluates the weight of a citizen's voice against the weight of another citizen's voice. To avoid repeating the noun voice, the possessive pronoun form neighbour's is used to represent neighbour's voice. This establishes a grammatically correct parallel comparison between the two possessive concepts.

Explanation

The word proscriptive refers to something that forbids, restricts, or limits, making it synonymous with prohibitive. In a broader context, particularly when describing rules, regulations, costs, or restrictions that are so strict or high that they prevent certain actions, prohibitive is used interchangeably with excessive. Consequently, excessive represents the closest synonymous relation.

Explanation

The verb to bereave means to be deprived of a close relation or friend, particularly through their death. It is commonly used in the context of mourning and grief, with the past participle form bereaved often used to describe those who have suffered the loss of a loved one.

Explanation

To perplex means to cause someone to feel completely baffled, confused, or puzzled. It describes the act of making a situation or a person thoroughly mystified, rendering them unable to understand or think clearly about something.

Explanation

In English grammar, adverbs of frequency such as usually, always, often, and sometimes are typically placed before the main verb of a sentence. In this sentence, have is the main verb meaning to eat. Therefore, the adverb usually must be positioned directly before the verb have, making usually have the grammatically correct word order.

Explanation

The use of the adverb too in part A is grammatically incorrect in this context. In English grammar, the correlative construction so... that is used to express degree or consequence, where so is followed by an adjective or adverb and that introduces a clause of result. Therefore, too should be replaced with so to make the sentence grammatically correct as: The plane was so far away that it was just a dot in the sky.

Explanation

An obligation refers to a course of action that a person is morally or legally bound to take, representing a state of duty, commitment, and responsibility. Conversely, irresponsibility denotes a complete lack of accountability, duty, or regard for consequences, making it the direct antonym of obligation.

Explanation

The given sentence contains a comma splice where two independent clauses are joined only by a comma. To correct this and establish a logical relationship of cause and effect, a nominative absolute construction is used. By using "It being", the first part of the sentence becomes a participial phrase where "It" is the subject and "being" is the present participle. This phrase functions as an adverbial modifier explaining the reason ("Since it was a pleasant day") for the action in the main clause, making the sentence grammatically correct.

Explanation

The word chronic is a medical term used to describe an illness, pain, or physical condition that persists for a long time or constantly recurs. A headache or other medical issue lasting for three months is defined as chronic because of its prolonged duration.

Explanation

Proximity refers to the state of being close or near in terms of space, time, or relationship. Imminent denotes an event that is about to happen, impending, or close in terms of time. Both terms share the core concept of nearness and closeness, making imminent the correct synonym.

Explanation

The active voice sentence is in the Present Perfect Tense, which follows the structure: Subject + has/have + past participle + Object.

To convert a Present Perfect active sentence into the Passive Voice, the structure is: Object + has/have + been + past participle + by + Subject.

In this sentence, the singular object "the assignment" becomes the subject in the passive voice and takes the singular auxiliary verb "has" followed by "been finished" and the agent "by us". Therefore, the passive form is "The assignment has been finished by us."

Explanation

The word climax refers to the most intense, dramatic, or important point of something, particularly as a culmination of a series of events. In this context, breaking a leg is described as the final and most severe event in a sequence of bad events that occurred during a nightmare week, making climax the most fitting and idiomatic word to complete the sentence.

Explanation

Brazened is the correctly spelled past-tense and past-participle form of the verb brazen. The word brazen means to behave boldly and shamelessly, or to face a difficult situation with defiant confidence, especially when used in the expression to brazen it out. It is formed by appending the standard regular verb suffix -ed to the root word brazen.

Explanation

The indefinite article a is used before words that begin with a consonant sound, while an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound. Since the word open begins with the vowel sound of o, it must be preceded by the article an. Therefore, the phrase reading a in part B has an error and should be corrected to reading an.

Explanation

The phrase "not yet rid" requires the preposition "of" to complete its meaning, indicating what the country has to get rid of. This immediately links the introductory part to P ("of its colonial hangover").

Part P ends with "colonial hangover," which is further qualified by the prepositional phrase in part R ("of a government that commands") to describe what the hangover consists of.

The verb "commands" at the end of part R is logically connected to "and controls" in part Q through the coordinating conjunction "and", followed by the main verb phrase of the sentence "labels dissent as seditious."

Combining these parts in the order P-R-Q forms the coherent and grammatically complete sentence: "Only a country not yet rid of its colonial hangover of a government that commands and controls, labels dissent as seditious."

Explanation

The verb to lament means to express grief, sorrow, or deep regret. Its antonym is to laud, which means to praise, commend, or extol highly, representing an expression of celebration and approval rather than mourning and sadness.

Explanation

The subject of the sentence, Developing countries, is immediately followed by the modal verb phrase in part P, which is should question the rationale. The noun rationale is naturally completed by the prepositional phrase in part Q, which is for such a registry ahead. The word ahead then pairs with the preposition of in part R to form the phrase ahead of a negotiated outcome on this issue, completing a grammatically sound and meaningful sentence.

Explanation

When converting an interrogative sentence from direct to indirect speech, the reporting verb said to is changed to asked. For question-word interrogatives starting with when, the question word itself acts as the joining connector. The sentence structure is changed from interrogative to assertive, meaning the subject you is placed before the auxiliary verb. Additionally, since the reporting verb is in the past tense, the future modal will is converted to its past form would. The pronoun you remains unchanged because the reporting verb is addressed to you. Combining these grammatical changes yields the correct indirect speech form.

Explanation

quaffing is the correct present participle spelling of the verb quaff, which means to drink a beverage heartily or in large draughts. The word is spelled with a double f before adding the continuous suffix -ing.

Explanation

The term graveyard shift refers to a work shift that runs through the late night and early morning hours, typically from midnight to 8:00 a.m. It is called the graveyard shift because it takes place during the quietest, darkest hours of the night when most of the world is asleep, resembling the quiet atmosphere of a graveyard.

Explanation

The term good Samaritan originates from the biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. It refers to a kind, compassionate, and charitable person who selflessly helps others in distress, particularly strangers, without expecting any reward or recognition.

Explanation

The verb proposed is used here in a passive construction where the action is performed by an agent. In English grammar, the agent performing the action in a passive clause is introduced using the preposition by. Since the committee is the active agent that formulated and presented the strategy, the preposition by is required to establish the correct grammatical relationship between the action and the agent.

Explanation

In the given sentence, the coordinating conjunction "and" connects parallel grammatical structures in the phrase "professionalization and ___ of court systems". Since "professionalization" is a noun, the word filling the blank must also be a noun to maintain grammatical parallelism. The word "rationalisation" is a noun that means the reorganization of a process or system to make it more efficient. Using "rationalisation" preserves the parallel noun structure and fits the overall context of institutional reform.

Explanation

The coordinating conjunction and is used to connect two parallel noun phrases that represent complementary reform measures for the court systems: induction of technology and limiting appeal procedures to the required. Since both components are part of the same strategy proposed by the committee, the additive conjunction and is the grammatically correct choice to link them.

Explanation

The word minimum fits grammatically and contextually in the phrase to the minimum required. This is a standard English collocation where minimum refers to the lowest possible amount, degree, or number of something that is necessary. In the context of judicial and administrative reforms, limiting appeal procedures to the minimum required means restricting them only to what is absolutely essential for justice, thereby preventing unnecessary delays and improving efficiency.

Explanation

The verb sought is the past tense of seek, which means to attempt, try, or endeavor to do something. In this context, sought to bring in correctly expresses the committee's aim or intention to introduce a more significant and responsible role for victims of crime in the proceedings.

Explanation

In part C, the noun phrase "five hundred rupees note" contains a grammatical error. When a compound unit consisting of a number and a noun acts as an adjective modifying another noun (in this case, "note"), the modifying noun must be in its singular form. Therefore, "rupees" should be singularized to "rupee", making the correct expression "five-hundred-rupee note".

Explanation

The word flotsam refers to wreckage, debris, or refuse found floating on water or washed ashore, and in a broader sense, it is used to describe any things or people that have been discarded or rejected as worthless.

Explanation

The pronoun "myself" is used in this sentence as an emphatic pronoun to add emphasis to the subject "I". Emphatic pronouns are grammatically placed immediately after the noun or pronoun they modify to give extra force to the statement. The construction "I myself think" is standard, grammatically correct, and accurately conveys this emphasis, meaning that the sentence requires no improvement.

Explanation

The pronoun them in part C refers back to each boy, which is singular. To maintain proper pronoun-antecedent agreement, the singular pronoun him should be used instead of the plural them.