SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 2 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the sentence that does NOT have a spelling error.

(a)The focus of the exibition is to reinforce versatility and creative thinking.
(b)The insouciance of the rock star considering the importance of the occasion, came
(c)The artist received recognition for her impressive etchings, buclic landscapes, and
(d)The paintings are structured chronologically, starting from cubism to surealism.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The instruction restricts you to spelling, so check letters rather than sense.

Option (b) prints insouciance, importance and occasion, and every one of them is spelt correctly. Nothing in it is misspelt, so it is the sentence that survives → option (b).

The hardest-looking word in the set is the one printed right, which is the whole design of the item.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The focus of the exibition is to reinforce versatility and creative thinking. — Exibition has lost the h of exhibit. The noun is spelt exhibition, with the h written even though it is barely heard.
(c)
The artist received recognition for her impressive etchings, buclic landscapes, and — Buclic should be bucolic, the adjective for the countryside. Etchings and impressive are correct, so this single word decides the option.
(d)
The paintings are structured chronologically, starting from cubism to surealism. — Surealism needs a double r: surrealism is sur- attached to realism. Chronologically and cubism are both spelt correctly.

Concept

A no-error item is an error item read backwards. You cannot judge it by how the sentence sounds, only by how the words are spelt.

The three faults planted here are the standard ones: a silent letter dropped in exibition, a sounded vowel dropped in buclic, and a doubled consonant reduced to one in surealism.

Difficult loan words are the bait. Insouciance looks the likeliest word in the set to be misspelt, and it is the one that is correct.

As reproduced from the response sheet, options (b) and (c) break off mid-clause. That does not affect the item, which turns on spelling alone, so do not reject the keyed sentence for reading incompletely.

Key facts

Exhibition keeps the h of exhibit, which is why exibition is wrong.
Bucolic means rural or pastoral and carries an o in its second syllable.
Surrealism doubles the r because it is the prefix sur- attached to realism.
Insouciance means a casual lack of concern.

Study next

Silent letters kept in nouns built on Latin roots, such as exhibition and prohibitionDouble consonants created when a prefix meets a root, as in surrealism and misspellArt vocabulary spellings: cubism, surrealism, etching, bucolic

Common traps

Rejecting the keyed sentence because it reads oddly, when the instruction asks only about spelling.
Assuming the least familiar word in an option must be the misspelt one.

The same no-error format is set at 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8 and 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1. The mirror image, where you pick the wrongly spelt word, is at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.16, whose answer is Setbecks.

Related PYQs

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