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Question

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: 

The speaker had been hardly audible due to disturbance.

This question was previously asked in
SSC CGL 2025 Tier 2 Paper 1 Question Paper (19-Jan-2026)
The correct answer is
barely audible due to the disturbance

Replacing 'Hardly Audible' in Sentences

The phrase "hardly audible" means that the speaker could only be heard with great difficulty, implying a very low volume or significant interference.

Analyzing Sentence Replacement Options

We need to find the option that best replaces "hardly audible" while maintaining the original meaning and grammatical structure related to the "disturbance".

  • Option 1: "barely heard due to the noise" - Changes "audible" (quality of sound) to "heard" (action of perceiving) and "disturbance" to "noise". This alters the nuance.
  • Option 2: "barely audible due to the disturbance" - This option uses "barely" as a synonym for "hardly" and keeps "audible" and "disturbance". "Barely audible" accurately reflects the meaning of being difficult to hear.
  • Option 3: "hard to hear because of disturbance" - This is a valid rephrasing but less direct than replacing "hardly audible" with a similar adverb-adjective combination.
  • Option 4: "hardly hearing for the noise" - This changes the meaning significantly, suggesting the speaker had trouble *perceiving* sound, not that their own voice was difficult to perceive.

Selecting the Most Suitable Option

Option 2, "barely audible due to the disturbance", is the most suitable replacement. It directly substitutes "hardly" with its near-synonym "barely" and retains the key terms "audible" and "disturbance", perfectly preserving the original sentence's meaning: the speaker's voice was difficult to hear because of the ongoing disturbance.

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