SSC CHSL Tier 1 2021 English Comprehension Questions with Solutions

Explanation

The idiom "donkey's years" is a colloquial English expression used to denote a very long period of time. This phrase is believed to have originated as a play on words, arising from a pun on "donkeys' ears," which are notably long, combined with the biological fact that donkeys are long-lived animals that can survive for several decades. Therefore, the phrase is commonly used to refer to a long duration or an extended passage of time.

Explanation

Disseminate means to spread, disperse, or distribute information, news, or knowledge widely. Similarly, circulate means to pass something from person to person or place to place, distributing or spreading it over a wide area. Both words share the core meaning of making information or material widely available to a large audience.

Explanation

Correct Answer: D

The segment contains a grammatical error because the auxiliary verb does (or its negative contraction doesn't) must always be followed by the base form of the main verb. The correct verb form to use after doesn't is grow, not the third-person singular form grows. Therefore, the phrase should read doesn't grow on trees.

Explanation

Sentence B serves as the introductory sentence by defining leadership and establishing its critical role in management. Sentence C logically follows by contrasting the state of leadership in the present world with ancient times, highlighting the reluctance of modern people to accept responsibilities. Sentence D connects directly to the mention of ancient times in sentence C, focusing specifically on Ancient India and listing iconic figures like Chandragupta Maurya, Gandhi, Buddha, and Bose. Sentence A begins with the pronoun phrase "These great leaders", which directly refers to the specific historical figures named in sentence D, explaining their perspective on responsibility and completing the coherent flow of the paragraph.

Explanation

The word innocous is incorrectly spelt. The correct spelling is innocuous, which means not harmful or offensive. It is derived from the Latin root innocuus, where the prefix in- means not and nocere means to hurt or harm, thus requiring the double u spelling ending in -uous.

Explanation

The idiom "go to the wall" means to fail, go bankrupt, or be destroyed. It is commonly used to describe a business, organization, or venture that is forced to close down or yield due to an inability to compete or overcome financial difficulties.

Explanation

Ecstasy is defined as a state of overwhelming emotion, particularly rapturous delight, extreme happiness, or spiritual transport. Bliss directly translates to supreme happiness, great joy, or perfect peace, making it the closest synonym. Both words convey a state of intense, elevated joy.

Explanation

The preposition for is followed by the gerund coming to indicate the reason for giving thanks. Since you is already the object of the verb thank in thank you, using the possessive determiner your before the gerund is redundant and grammatically incorrect in this context. The phrase thank you for coming out is the standard idiomatic construction used to express gratitude to someone for attending an event.

Explanation

The noun people is plural and requires the plural auxiliary verb were to maintain correct subject-verb agreement. Additionally, the phrasal verb empty out of is used to describe a large number of people leaving or vacating a space. Therefore, were emptying out of is the grammatically correct and contextually appropriate substitute.

Explanation

Personification is a literary device in which non-living objects, animals, or abstract ideas are endowed with human characteristics, emotions, and behaviors. By attributing human qualities to these entities, writers make their descriptions more vivid, relatable, and easier for the reader to understand, as it allows people to relate non-human things to their own experiences.

Explanation

Writers, poets, and novelists produce written literature such as poems, novels, and stories. The audience that consumes this written literature and processes the imagery to visualize the scenes described is the readers. Therefore, imagery is used to create vivid mental images in the mind of the readers.

Explanation

A rhyme scheme is the formal arrangement or pattern of rhyming sounds at the end of each line in a poem or song. It is conventionally represented by using letters of the alphabet to show which lines rhyme with each other, establishing a structured repetition of similar sounds that defines the auditory pattern of the verse.

Explanation

Irony is a literary device characterized by a contrast between expectation and reality, specifically where the actual meaning of a statement or situation is completely different from its literal meaning. The word actual correctly identifies the real, intended meaning that underlies the literal words used.

Explanation

Irony is a literary device where the intended or implied meaning of a statement or situation is completely different from its literal or surface meaning. In this context, the word different appropriately completes the definition by highlighting the contrast between what is said and what is actually meant.

Explanation

The word pseudo is an adjective or prefix that means not genuine, sham, false, or insincere. It is used to describe something that is fake, simulated, or a pretense. The exact opposite of pseudo is genuine, which describes something that is authentic, real, and truly what it is said to be.

Explanation

The word fastly is grammatically incorrect because it is not a valid word in standard English. The word fast functions as both an adjective and an adverb. To describe the manner of the birds' flight, the adverb fast should be used instead of fastly, making the grammatically correct phrase fast above.

Explanation

When converting direct speech into indirect speech, if the reporting verb is in the past tense (said), the tenses within the reported speech change to their corresponding past forms. Accordingly, the modal verb "can" changes to its past equivalent "could". Additionally, the first-person pronoun "I" changes to the third-person pronoun "she" to align with the subject of the reporting verb. Applying these rules, the phrase "I can play" becomes "she could play".

Explanation

The word persists means to continue firmly or obstinately in a course of action, state, or opinion. The exact opposite of continuing an action or state is to stop or cease it, which is represented by discontinues, meaning to stop doing, providing, or carrying on with something.

Explanation

A volunteer is defined as a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task, especially by performing services or helping others willingly without receiving any financial compensation or payment. This directly matches the description of Samantha's actions of helping others without expecting payment.

Explanation

The word plenitude refers to the condition of being full, complete, or abundant. It originates from the Latin word plenitudo, which is derived from plenus, meaning full. It is used to denote an abundance or a state of completeness.

Explanation

The phrasal verb knock down means to demolish, raze, or tear down a building or structure.

Explanation

The word hostil is incorrectly spelt. The correct spelling is hostile, which means showing or feeling active opposition or dislike.

Explanation

The active sentence is an imperative sentence with the structure: Verb (Tell) + Object (her) + Infinitive phrase (to finish the work).

To convert an imperative sentence into the passive voice, the structure "Let + object + be + past participle" is used.

Applying this rule, the main clause "Tell her" converts to "Let her be told", and the infinitive phrase "to finish the work" is retained at the end. This results in the correct passive construction: "Let her be told to finish the work."

Explanation

The active sentence is in the simple future tense, which uses the structure "subject + will + base form of the verb + object".

To convert this active sentence into the passive voice, the object "Freddy" becomes the new subject, the verb "will meet" changes to the passive form "will be met" (using the auxiliary "will be" followed by the past participle "met"), and the active subject "They" becomes the agent "by them". The prepositional phrase "outside the airport" remains at the end of the sentence.

Explanation

The idiom eat like a horse is used to describe someone who habitually eats a very large amount of food. This expression draws a comparison to the large appetite and substantial food consumption of a horse, which requires a significant amount of food daily to sustain its large body and high energy levels.

Explanation

An antidote is a medicinal substance specifically used to counteract or neutralize the effects of a poison, toxin, or venom in the body. It works by binding to the toxic substance, blocking its receptors, or reversing its physiological effects, thereby preventing harm or death.

Explanation

The word courteous is incorrectly spelt as Corteous. The correct spelling is courteous, which means polite, respectful, or considerate in manner.

Explanation

The idiom "beat around the bush" means to speak in an indirect and roundabout manner, purposely avoiding the main or most important topic. It typically occurs when someone wants to delay talking about an embarrassing, difficult, or unpleasant subject, thereby avoiding getting straight to the point.

Explanation

The word "scared" is an adjective that describes the state of feeling fear, fright, or apprehension. "Afraid" is its direct synonym, sharing the identical meaning of being filled with fear or anxiety in the face of danger or trouble.

Explanation

The word assiduous is defined as showing great care, attention, and persistent effort, or being highly diligent and industrious in one's work. The word idle refers to a state of being lazy, avoiding work, inactive, or not spent in any useful employment. Therefore, idle is the direct antonym of assiduous as it represents the exact opposite state of inactivity and lack of diligence.

Explanation

The original sentence contains a grammatical redundancy with the consecutive conjunctions "but" and "though". Replacing the underlined part with "still controllable" resolves this redundancy. The adverb "still" combined with the adjective "controllable" provides a smooth and logical contrast to the preceding descriptors "hard" and "unpredictable", maintaining parallel structure and completing the thought coherently.

Explanation

Sentence A begins the paragraph by setting the scene where a fish has been successfully landed and the narrator asks the brothers if they eat fish. Sentence C naturally follows A as it refers to the brothers' response to this question (receiving their eager answer). In sentence C, the narrator offers them the fish, which leads to sentence B, introducing the condition under which the fish would be given (they had to help land another fish). Finally, sentence D completes the coherent flow as "To this they readily agreed" directly responds to the condition proposed in sentence B, followed by the resumption of the wait.

Explanation

The word ebb refers to the outward movement of the tide away from the land, or more generally, to recede, decline, or diminish. Its direct antonym is flow, which refers to the inward movement of the tide towards the land, or to rise, flood, and increase.

Explanation

The word assassinate means to murder a prominent or important person, such as a head of state or political leader, typically for political, religious, or ideological reasons. In the given sentence, the context of terrorists targeting a president during a public appearance refers directly to an attempt to murder him.

Explanation

The verb admit combines with the preposition of to form the phrasal verb admit of, which means to allow for, leave room for, or be capable of. In this context, the question does not allow for or cannot be resolved by a simple answer, making of the grammatically correct preposition to complete the phrase.

Explanation

The sentence lists geographical and political territories: "one land, one principality or dominion". The word dominion refers to a territory, sovereign state, or land under a particular government or ruler, making it semantically consistent with the terms land and principality in the series.

Explanation

The blank is followed by the preposition "upon". The phrasal verb "depend upon" means to trust, rely on, or place confidence in something. In this context, the passive voice construction "may not be depended upon" is grammatically correct and fits the meaning of the sentence, expressing that because the maps of Faerie are unreliable, they cannot be trusted or relied upon.

Explanation

The noun hut refers to a physical dwelling or shelter. The past participle built is used in a passive sense to describe the construction of such physical structures. When followed by the preposition of and a list of materials, built of is the standard idiomatic phrasing used to specify the substances, such as thatch and grey clay, that were used to construct the dwelling.

Explanation

The context of the passage describes a bird trapped inside a cage, which does not sing and remains silent. A caged bird being unable to sing evokes a feeling of sadness, confinement, and grief. The adverb mournfully, which means in a way that expresses sorrow, sadness, or melancholy, fits the tone of this description perfectly, capturing the sad state of the captive bird.

Explanation

The word indulging means to become involved in an activity, especially something that is undesirable or prohibited. In this context, indulging in ragging correctly describes a student participating in the forbidden practice of ragging, which justifies their expulsion from the educational institution. The preposition in typically collocates with indulging to indicate active participation in a behavior.

Explanation

To convert a sentence from passive voice to active voice, the agent performing the action, which is the object of the preposition "by" in the passive sentence, becomes the subject of the active sentence. In this sentence, "the research team" is the agent and becomes the subject. The passive verb "was added" (simple past tense) changes to its active form "added". The subject of the passive sentence, "four grams of sodium chloride", becomes the direct object in the active sentence, while the remaining prepositional phrase "to the mixture" remains unchanged. This yields the active sentence: "The research team added four grams of sodium chloride to the mixture."

Explanation

The word naturality is incorrect in this context. The intended word is neutrality, which refers to the state of remaining impartial and not supporting or helping either side in a conflict, disagreement, or political matter. The correct spelling for this intended term is neutrality.

Explanation

Segment c introduces the subject Nick Vujicic and ends with the phrase "prevented from", which grammatically requires a gerund. Segment d starts with the gerund "attending" and completes this clause, explaining the obstacle he faced. Segment a begins with the transition word "However" to present a contrasting turn of events driven by "sheer grit and determination". Segment b completes this contrast by describing the successful outcome of his efforts, which was getting admission to a high school. This logical and grammatical sequence establishes the flow of c, d, a, b.

Explanation

In English grammar, the definite article is not used before the names of games, sports, or academic subjects. Therefore, the use of "the" before the sport "football" is grammatically incorrect, and the segment should simply be "football".

Explanation

A sceptic is a person who habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with generally accepted conclusions, established beliefs, or claims of truth. The direct opposite of a sceptic is a believer, which refers to a person who accepts statements, doctrines, or the existence of something as true, trustworthy, or real without demanding absolute proof.

Explanation

The word flummoxed means to be bewildered, perplexed, or highly confused. When someone is flummoxed by a document, they find it difficult to comprehend and feel uneasy or mentally troubled. The word comfortable serves as the antonym, indicating a state of being at ease, confident, relaxed, and secure in one's understanding, free from perplexity or confusion.

Explanation

A benefactor is a person who supports a cause, institution, or individual by providing financial assistance, donations, or other forms of helpful support. The term is derived from the Latin words bene, meaning well, and facere, meaning to do, which translates to a well-doer or one who does good deeds for others.

Explanation

The phrase "complete stranger" is a standard English collocation used to describe a person whom one does not know at all. In this context, the adjective "complete" is used to emphasize the absolute and total lack of any prior familiarity, acquaintance, or knowledge of the person.

Explanation

The idiom red letter day refers to an extremely important, happy, or significant day that is worth remembering. This expression originates from the medieval practice of marking important church festivals, saints' days, and holidays in red ink on calendars, while ordinary days were printed in black. Over time, it evolved to represent any highly memorable or special occasion in a person's life.

Explanation

The word extant means still in existence, surviving, or not destroyed or lost. Its direct antonym is extinct, which refers to something that is no longer in existence, active, or alive.