SSC CPO · Topic Collection

English Comprehension PYQs

Reading comprehension, vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, idiom usage, error spotting, sentence improvement, and cloze tests.

4100 Total Questions67 Official PapersYears: 2017–2025Search in English Comprehension
Showing questions 121–140 of 4100Page 7 of 100
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 121

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Choose the correct meaning of idiom:

Finger in the pie

  1. AOption (a)

    Being involved or interfering in something

  2. BOption (b)

    Trying to cause conflict intentionally

  3. COption (c)

    Avoiding responsibility

  4. DOption (d)

    Speaking without knowledge

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Being involved or interfering in something

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 122

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Choose the correct spelling for a word meaning 'generosity in giving'.

  1. AOption (a)

    Largesse

  2. BOption (b)

    Larges

  3. COption (c)

    Largece

  4. DOption (d)

    Largese

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Largesse

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 123

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Select the correct spelling for a word meaning 'clumsy or awkward in movement or manner'.

  1. AOption (a)

    Gauche

  2. BOption (b)

    Gosh

  3. COption (c)

    Goush

  4. DOption (d)

    Gauch

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Gauche

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 124

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Find the correct spelling of a word describing disloyal betrayal.

  1. AOption (a)

    Perfidy

  2. BOption (b)

    Perphidy

  3. COption (c)

    Perfedee

  4. DOption (d)

    Perfody

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Perfidy

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 125

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'A person who studies the stars and planets to predict the future'.

  1. AOption (a)

    Astronomer

  2. BOption (b)

    Astrologer

  3. COption (c)

    Meteorologist

  4. DOption (d)

    Cosmologist

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Astronomer

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 126

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'An expression of sympathy, especially on the occasion of death'.

  1. AOption (a)

    Condolence

  2. BOption (b)

    Consolation

  3. COption (c)

    Reassurance

  4. DOption (d)

    Assurance

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Condolence

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 127

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Spot the correct spelling of a vine-pest genus.

  1. AOption (a)

    Phylloxera

  2. BOption (b)

    Phylloxerae

  3. COption (c)

    Philoxera

  4. DOption (d)

    Phyloxera

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Phylloxera

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 128

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Choose the correct one-word substitute for: 'The practice of helping the poor and needy, especially by donating money'

  1. AOption (a)

    Philanthropy

  2. BOption (b)

    Misogyny

  3. COption (c)

    Sympathy

  4. DOption (d)

    Misanthrope

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Philanthropy

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 129

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:

Instrument In recent years, bio-surveillance has migrated from the periphery of crisis management into the marrow of everyday governance. What began as a provisional response to epidemiological disruption has, with startling velocity, matured into a (1)____ of statecraft. The body, once a site of private experience, is now parsed into micro-indicators, archived not as narratives but as anomalies within statistical matrices. The threshold for intervention has shifted not at diagnosis, but at deviation. Such a regime thrives on a curious inversion: surveillance no longer reacts to illness; it anticipates it. The calculus of care becomes indistinguishable from the logic of control, and protection is no longer offered but enforced. In this architecture, the citizen is both beneficiary and suspect, suspended in a biopolitical gaze that renders health a function of (2)_____ , not autonomy. What is striking, however, is not merely the pervasiveness of this apparatus, but its opacity. Embedded technologies track pulse, breath, temperature - but who interprets? Who decides what qualifies as pathological? The grammar of governance here is not public but procedural, not deliberative but (3)_____ If unchecked, this mode risks normalizing a world in which vigilance masquerades as virtue. The ethical stakes are not peripheral but foundational: in rendering health as measurable, we risk rendering it (4)_____ The ineffable - pain, anxiety, even trust becomes illegible within a model that privileges only what can be graphed. The challenge, then, is not to reject technology but to reinscribe its terms. Bio-surveillance must be subject to democratic scrutiny, not immune to it. Otherwise, we inherit not safety but a simulated solidarity, and in its name, a deeply (5)_____ submission.

What should come in the place of blank number (1)?

  1. AOption (a)

    interpretive

  2. BOption (b)

    diagnostic

  3. COption (c)

    ornamental

  4. DOption (d)

    cautionary

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

interpretive

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 130

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:

Instrument In recent years, bio-surveillance has migrated from the periphery of crisis management into the marrow of everyday governance. What began as a provisional response to epidemiological disruption has, with startling velocity, matured into a (1)____ of statecraft. The body, once a site of private experience, is now parsed into micro-indicators, archived not as narratives but as anomalies within statistical matrices. The threshold for intervention has shifted not at diagnosis, but at deviation. Such a regime thrives on a curious inversion: surveillance no longer reacts to illness; it anticipates it. The calculus of care becomes indistinguishable from the logic of control, and protection is no longer offered but enforced. In this architecture, the citizen is both beneficiary and suspect, suspended in a biopolitical gaze that renders health a function of (2)_____ , not autonomy. What is striking, however, is not merely the pervasiveness of this apparatus, but its opacity. Embedded technologies track pulse, breath, temperature - but who interprets? Who decides what qualifies as pathological? The grammar of governance here is not public but procedural, not deliberative but (3)_____ If unchecked, this mode risks normalizing a world in which vigilance masquerades as virtue. The ethical stakes are not peripheral but foundational: in rendering health as measurable, we risk rendering it (4)_____ The ineffable - pain, anxiety, even trust becomes illegible within a model that privileges only what can be graphed. The challenge, then, is not to reject technology but to reinscribe its terms. Bio-surveillance must be subject to democratic scrutiny, not immune to it. Otherwise, we inherit not safety but a simulated solidarity, and in its name, a deeply (5)_____ submission.

What should come in the place of blank number (2)?

  1. AOption (a)

    reciprocity

  2. BOption (b)

    compliance

  3. COption (c)

    consent

  4. DOption (d)

    variability

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

reciprocity

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 131

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:

Instrument In recent years, bio-surveillance has migrated from the periphery of crisis management into the marrow of everyday governance. What began as a provisional response to epidemiological disruption has, with startling velocity, matured into a (1)____ of statecraft. The body, once a site of private experience, is now parsed into micro-indicators, archived not as narratives but as anomalies within statistical matrices. The threshold for intervention has shifted not at diagnosis, but at deviation. Such a regime thrives on a curious inversion: surveillance no longer reacts to illness; it anticipates it. The calculus of care becomes indistinguishable from the logic of control, and protection is no longer offered but enforced. In this architecture, the citizen is both beneficiary and suspect, suspended in a biopolitical gaze that renders health a function of (2)_____ , not autonomy. What is striking, however, is not merely the pervasiveness of this apparatus, but its opacity. Embedded technologies track pulse, breath, temperature - but who interprets? Who decides what qualifies as pathological? The grammar of governance here is not public but procedural, not deliberative but (3)_____ If unchecked, this mode risks normalizing a world in which vigilance masquerades as virtue. The ethical stakes are not peripheral but foundational: in rendering health as measurable, we risk rendering it (4)_____ The ineffable - pain, anxiety, even trust becomes illegible within a model that privileges only what can be graphed. The challenge, then, is not to reject technology but to reinscribe its terms. Bio-surveillance must be subject to democratic scrutiny, not immune to it. Otherwise, we inherit not safety but a simulated solidarity, and in its name, a deeply (5)_____ submission.

What should come in the place of blank number (3)?

  1. AOption (a)

    ceremonial

  2. BOption (b)

    therapeutic

  3. COption (c)

    technocratic

  4. DOption (d)

    erratic

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

ceremonial

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 132

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:

Instrument In recent years, bio-surveillance has migrated from the periphery of crisis management into the marrow of everyday governance. What began as a provisional response to epidemiological disruption has, with startling velocity, matured into a (1)____ of statecraft. The body, once a site of private experience, is now parsed into micro-indicators, archived not as narratives but as anomalies within statistical matrices. The threshold for intervention has shifted not at diagnosis, but at deviation. Such a regime thrives on a curious inversion: surveillance no longer reacts to illness; it anticipates it. The calculus of care becomes indistinguishable from the logic of control, and protection is no longer offered but enforced. In this architecture, the citizen is both beneficiary and suspect, suspended in a biopolitical gaze that renders health a function of (2)_____ , not autonomy. What is striking, however, is not merely the pervasiveness of this apparatus, but its opacity. Embedded technologies track pulse, breath, temperature - but who interprets? Who decides what qualifies as pathological? The grammar of governance here is not public but procedural, not deliberative but (3)_____ If unchecked, this mode risks normalizing a world in which vigilance masquerades as virtue. The ethical stakes are not peripheral but foundational: in rendering health as measurable, we risk rendering it (4)_____ The ineffable - pain, anxiety, even trust becomes illegible within a model that privileges only what can be graphed. The challenge, then, is not to reject technology but to reinscribe its terms. Bio-surveillance must be subject to democratic scrutiny, not immune to it. Otherwise, we inherit not safety but a simulated solidarity, and in its name, a deeply (5)_____ submission.

What should come in the place of blank number (4)?

  1. AOption (a)

    indispensable

  2. BOption (b)

    visible

  3. COption (c)

    mechanical

  4. DOption (d)

    subordinate

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

indispensable

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 133

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:

Instrument In recent years, bio-surveillance has migrated from the periphery of crisis management into the marrow of everyday governance. What began as a provisional response to epidemiological disruption has, with startling velocity, matured into a (1)____ of statecraft. The body, once a site of private experience, is now parsed into micro-indicators, archived not as narratives but as anomalies within statistical matrices. The threshold for intervention has shifted not at diagnosis, but at deviation. Such a regime thrives on a curious inversion: surveillance no longer reacts to illness; it anticipates it. The calculus of care becomes indistinguishable from the logic of control, and protection is no longer offered but enforced. In this architecture, the citizen is both beneficiary and suspect, suspended in a biopolitical gaze that renders health a function of (2)_____ , not autonomy. What is striking, however, is not merely the pervasiveness of this apparatus, but its opacity. Embedded technologies track pulse, breath, temperature - but who interprets? Who decides what qualifies as pathological? The grammar of governance here is not public but procedural, not deliberative but (3)_____ If unchecked, this mode risks normalizing a world in which vigilance masquerades as virtue. The ethical stakes are not peripheral but foundational: in rendering health as measurable, we risk rendering it (4)_____ The ineffable - pain, anxiety, even trust becomes illegible within a model that privileges only what can be graphed. The challenge, then, is not to reject technology but to reinscribe its terms. Bio-surveillance must be subject to democratic scrutiny, not immune to it. Otherwise, we inherit not safety but a simulated solidarity, and in its name, a deeply (5)_____ submission.

What should come in the place of blank number (5)?

  1. AOption (a)

    intuitive

  2. BOption (b)

    symbolic

  3. COption (c)

    unconscious

  4. DOption (d)

    performative

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

intuitive

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 134

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Identify the correct adverb:

He finished the work_____ to avoid missing the deadline.

  1. AOption (a)

    hurried

  2. BOption (b)

    hurrying

  3. COption (c)

    hurry

  4. DOption (d)

    hurriedly

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

hurried

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 135

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Select the correct option:

The treaty stipulates that disputes shall be resolved __________ arbitration.

  1. AOption (a)

    through

  2. BOption (b)

    by

  3. COption (c)

    with

  4. DOption (d)

    via

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

through

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 136

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:

The consultant suggested that the firm (1)/ discontinues the outdated product line (2)/ so as to focus more resources (3)/ on  innovation. (4)/

  1. AOption (a)

    (1)

  2. BOption (b)

    (2)

  3. COption (c)

    (3)

  4. DOption (d)

    (4)

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

(1)

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 137

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:

He took such an offense at the remark (1)/ that he refused to speak with the manager (2)/ despite repeated requests made (3)/ on behalf of the HR department. (4)

  1. AOption (a)

    (1)

  2. BOption (b)

    (2)

  3. COption (c)

    (3)

  4. DOption (d)

    (4)

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

(1)

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 138

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Change the following from active to passive:

Have the archivists digitized the medieval manuscripts yet?

  1. AOption (a)

    Were the medieval manuscripts digitized by the archivists yet?

  2. BOption (b)

    Have the medieval manuscripts been digitized by the archivists yet?

  3. COption (c)

    Are the medieval manuscripts being digitized by the archivists yet?

  4. DOption (d)

    Had the medieval manuscripts been digitized by the archivists yet?

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

Were the medieval manuscripts digitized by the archivists yet?

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 139

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Change the following from active to passive:

The government is said to have downplayed the findings deliberately.

  1. AOption (a)

    The findings are said to be downplayed by the government.

  2. BOption (b)

    It is said that the findings were downplayed deliberately.

  3. COption (c)

    The findings are said to have been downplayed deliberately by the government.

  4. DOption (d)

    Deliberate findings were said to be downplayed by the government.

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

The findings are said to be downplayed by the government.

Explanation not yet available.
SSC CPO 2025 Official Paper (Held On 10 Dec, 2025 Shift 1) (Previous Year Paper)·English Comprehension
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Question 140

SSC CPO 2025• English Comprehension• English Comprehension

Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word:

The dove flew above the trees with grace.

  1. AOption (a)

    She watched the dove as it landed.

  2. BOption (b)

    A dove perched on the window sill.

  3. COption (c)

    He saw the dove headfirst into the challenge.

  4. DOption (d)

    The diver dove deep into the ocean.

View answer & explanation

Correct answer

Answer: (a)A.

She watched the dove as it landed.

Explanation not yet available.

How should I prepare for English Comprehension in SSC CPO?

Solving previous year questions by topic helps identify recurring concepts, question patterns, and frequently asked sub-topics. Attempt each question, review the step-by-step explanation, and note down key formulas or facts for quick revision before the exam.