SSC CGL 2025 — PYQs

Read the following passage and answer the questions based on the passage: Democracy is often praised as the system most capable of protecting personal liberty. Safeguarded by constitutional guarantees and upheld through the rule of law, freedoms of speech, faith, association, and conscience are commonly viewed as defining features of democratic rule. Yet an equally essential element–though less openly emphasized–is responsibility, without which liberty can slide into disorder, division, or even an authoritarian reaction. In a democracy, freedom is not boundless; it functions within shared limits and civic self-restraint. The right to disagree is fundamental, but when expression is used to spread hate, falsehoods, or inflammatory propaganda, it no longer strengthens democracy. Responsibility therefore means thinking deliberately about the impact of one’s actions–not only whether they are legal, but whether they are ethically and civically sound. The real difficulty lies in balancing liberty with accountability in diverse societies. Because democracies contain varied cultural, political, and economic groups, they naturally become spaces of disagreement. In such settings, responsibility requires more than obedience to law; it calls for empathy, reasoned judgment, and dedication to the common good. A citizen’s freedom to protest, for instance, must be exercised with respect for public order and the rights of others. Likewise, the right to vote must be matched by a duty to choose wisely, not driven by prejudice, populist manipulation, or misinformation. This strain between liberty and responsibility becomes most visible during crises–whether a pandemic, communal violence, or constitutional conflict. In such moments, prioritizing individual freedom over collective safety can be disastrous. Refusing basic precautions in a health emergency or circulating unverified claims during unrest shows how unchecked freedom can weaken democratic strength. Moreover, democracy does not sustain itself automatically; it depends on alert citizens who understand that rights endure only through participation and ethical use. When responsibility disappears, democratic institutions become vulnerable from within. Demagogues often gain ground not only because governments fail, but because citizens become indifferent or misuse democratic freedoms. Thus, freedom and responsibility are not rivals in a working democracy; they reinforce each other. Protecting liberty requires citizens capable of ethical thinking, informed debate, and constructive dissent. Without responsibility, freedom can shift from a force for justice into a source of fragmentation. Democracy survives not merely through laws, but through the civic character of its people.

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option to fill in each blank: The language of global environmental governance has not so much progressed as hardened into a glossary of bureaucratic (1) _____–phrases designed more to burnish institutional credibility than to drive substantive ecological reform. What was once an ethical confrontation with the limits of planetary endurance has since retreated into indices and scorecards, calibrated more to project authority than to redistribute it. Terms such as “climate resilience,” “multi- stakeholder dialogue,” and “zero-carbon targets” crowd policy frameworks, their definitions stretched to the point where they attain the malleability of (2) _____. Within this economy of signs, language abandons its capacity to illuminate and becomes instead a ritual of compliance. Policy declarations tip into euphemism; official statements are laden with procedural solemnity. Catastrophes are not acknowledged as such; they are (3) _____ into ‘capacity-building opportunities.’ The vocabulary of human suffering is scrubbed clean, even as the underlying data remains stark. What surfaces is not candour, but a choreography of intent–an emotional staging of concern. In the meantime, knowledge hierarchies endure: indigenous ecological wisdom is (4) _____ as “community-level insight,” afforded enough visibility to embellish, but never enough to redirect. Climate equity, once a challenge to power, now speaks in measured tones, absorbed efficiently into multilateral summit outcomes. Should environmental governance wish to transcend its culture of performance, it must release its grip on image management and engage honestly with its own liabilities. Anything less is not leadership–it is administrative (5) _____ posing as stewardship.