SSC CGL 2025 PYQ — Question 25

SSC CGL - 18 Sep 2025 - Shift 3 • English • Q25

Select the correct option for the Direct Speech conversion of the sentence below.
He remarked that the sculpture would have commanded greater gravitas had the pedestal been proportionally austere.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A

Explanation

The correct answer is Option 1 i.e. He said, "The sculpture would have commanded greater gravitas had the pedestal been proportionally austere."

Changes required:

Reporting verb: “remarked” can be converted to “said” in direct speech.
Conjunction: “that” is removed and inverted commas (“__”) are added.
Tense: The tense remains unchanged as it is already correctly expressed in the sentence.
Structure: The conditional structure is kept the same to retain the original meaning.

Converted sentence: He said, "The sculpture would have commanded greater gravitas had the pedestal been proportionally austere."

Hence, the chosen option is correct.