SSC CHSL Tier 1 2019 English Comprehension Questions with Solutions

Explanation

The phrasal verb sit through means to stay until the end of an event, such as a lecture, meeting, or show, especially one that is long, tedious, or difficult to endure. Since the sentence refers to children enduring a long lecture, this phrasal verb is the most appropriate choice to convey the intended meaning.

Explanation

The word impregnable refers to a stronghold, fortress, or position that is secure and strong enough to resist any attack, making it impossible to be captured or taken by force. It is derived from the Middle French word imprenable, where prendre means to take.

Explanation

The sentence uses the correlative conjunction not only, which must be paired with but also to maintain grammatical correctness. In the given sentence, the phrase and also is incorrectly used instead of but also. Therefore, the segment containing and also benefit is grammatically incorrect.

Explanation

The logical sequence of the narrative begins with sentence B, which introduces the protagonist Pip, his background as an orphan, the setting of Christmas Eve, and his initial encounter with an escaped convict in the graveyard. Sentence C naturally follows B as it details the immediate reaction of the convict, who terrifies Pip into agreeing to steal food and a file. Sentence D continues the sequence by showing Pip carrying out the action of stealing the requested items from his sister's house. Finally, sentence A concludes the sequence by describing the events of the following day, early on Christmas morning, when Pip returns to the graveyard to deliver the stolen items to the convict. This establishes the sequence BCDA as the correct chronological and logical order.

Explanation

Sentence A introduces the protagonist, a poor little girl, setting the foundation for the story. Sentence D follows by introducing the triggering event, which is the invitation to her friend's birthday party. Sentence B describes her excitement about the invitation and introduces the problem she faces, which is her worn-out shoe. Sentence C provides the consequence of this problem, starting with the conjunction "so" to show that she went to a cobbler to get the shoe mended. This creates a logical flow of introduction, event, conflict, and action.

Explanation

When changing an interrogative sentence starting with a question word like "what" into indirect speech, the reporting verb "asked" is retained, and the question word itself acts as the connector without needing the conjunction "that". The interrogative structure is converted into an assertive statement, meaning the subject comes before the verb. Since the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb in the reported speech changes from simple present "is" to simple past "was". Additionally, the demonstrative "this" changes to "that" to reflect the shift in perspective. Applying these rules, the direct speech transforms into "I asked the shopkeeper what the price of that bike was."

Explanation

The word "embed" refers to the act of fixing or placing an object firmly, deeply, and securely into a surrounding mass, solid, or area. The word "bury" likewise means to place or hide something completely within or under a substance, such as the ground or another covering material. Both terms share the core meaning of inserting something deeply into a medium so that it becomes an integral or hidden part of it, making them synonyms.

Explanation

The idiom "as clear as mud" is used humorously or ironically to describe something that is extremely confusing or impossible to understand. Because mud is thick, opaque, and difficult to see through, comparing the clarity of an explanation or a situation to mud indicates that it lacks any clarity whatsoever.

Explanation

The verb avoid is grammatically followed by a gerund, which is the -ing form of a verb, rather than an infinitive or base verb. This makes travelling the grammatically correct form to follow avoid. Additionally, the preposition in is the standard and appropriate choice when referring to a period of time such as the rush hour.

Explanation

The correct spelling of the word is blossom, which refers to a flower or a mass of flowers, especially on a tree or bush. In the exam, this word was misspelled as blosom.

Explanation

The sentence has a subject-verb agreement error. The subject of the sentence, The Cannes Film Festival, is a singular proper noun. According to the rules of subject-verb agreement, a singular subject requires a singular verb. Therefore, the plural verb attract must be replaced with its singular form, attracts, to make the sentence grammatically correct. This error lies in the segment attract some of.

Explanation

The word combustible refers to a substance that is capable of catching fire and burning easily. Similarly, the word inflammable describes something that is highly flammable and easily ignited. The prefix in- in inflammable acts as an intensive rather than a negative, meaning both words share the exact same definition of being easily set on fire.

Explanation

The word billowing is the most appropriate choice because it specifically describes the action of smoke, cloud, or steam swelling, rolling, or moving outward in large, surging masses. When applied to thick smoke rising from a landfill site, billowing perfectly conveys the large-scale, continuous dispersion of smoke into the surrounding air.

Explanation

The term personnel refers to the staff, employees, or collective group of people employed in an organization. In the context of the sentence, the financial institutions suffered devastating losses of both their human resources (personnel) and their physical equipment and computer systems (hardware). The pairing of personnel and hardware represents the two vital components—human and physical—needed for these institutions to function, making it the most appropriate word to complete the sentence.

Explanation

In the given sentence, "person" is the most appropriate noun to refer to an individual human being in a general and grammatically natural sense. When describing someone's wealth ranking, referring to them as the second-richest "person" in the world is the standard and correct English collocation.

Explanation

The word worth is used to indicate the value of someone's wealth or assets. In the phrase he is worth an estimated 103 billion, it correctly functions as an adjective meaning having a specified value, which is the standard English construction for expressing a person's financial net worth.

Explanation

The sentence requires a passive voice construction because the agent performing the action, Jeff Bezos, is introduced by the preposition by. Since the entire passage is written in the present tense to describe a current factual state, the simple present passive form is surpassed is grammatically correct to show that Bill Gates's wealth is exceeded only by that of Jeff Bezos.

Explanation

The relative pronoun in blank 4 refers to Jeff Bezos, who is a person, and functions as the subject of the verb has in the relative clause. The relative pronoun who is used to refer to a person when they are the subject of the verb in a clause.

Explanation

The sentence uses the correlative construction "so... that" to express a relationship of degree and result. The adverb "so" modifies the adjective "rich" to show an extreme level, which is then followed by a clause introduced by "that" to explain the consequence or comparison.

Explanation

The active sentence is in the present perfect tense, using the structure of subject (Bill Gates) + has/have + third form of verb (given away) + object (twenty seven percent of his wealth). When converting a present perfect active sentence into the passive voice, the active object becomes the new passive subject, and the verb form changes to has/have + been + past participle (V3). Since twenty-seven percent of his wealth is treated as a singular noun phrase, it is paired with has been given away, followed by the agent introduced by by. This aligns perfectly with the rules of active-passive voice conversion.

Explanation

The idiom "spill the beans" is a widely used colloquial phrase that means to disclose confidential information or reveal a secret, often prematurely or unintentionally.

Explanation

A mansion is defined as a large, impressive, and stately dwelling house. The term is typically used to describe a residence of grand size, high architectural quality, and luxurious character.