Select the sentence that does NOT have a spelling error.

Correct — D. Work by elimination: find the one misspelt word in each of the other three lines.

contredictions should be contradictions — the root is Latin contra-, against.

futristic drops the u of future; the adjective keeps the whole stem, futur- plus -istic.

pleascence is not an English word in any spelling.

That leaves option (d), where memoirists, described and detail are all correct.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  The author is famous for leading a life of subterfuge and contredictions which has led — contredictions is misspelt. Contradiction is built on contra- plus dict-, to speak against, so the second vowel is an a: contradictions.
• (b)
  Statistical patterns and historical data cannot predict the futristic problems that await — futristic is misspelt. Futuristic keeps the full stem of future, so the u survives before the ending: fu-tur-istic.
• (c)
  The new caches of materials reveal a secret pleascence that was hidden away from — pleascence is not a word. The nearest real spelling is pleasance, an old word for a secluded garden, and the printed form matches nothing.

This item is decided by spelling alone. All four lines read sensibly, so meaning gives you nothing and you must look at the letters.

The reliable method is to spell from the root. Contradiction carries contra-, futuristic carries future, and once you rebuild the word from its parts the misprint is visible.

The second habit worth building is to distrust your eye on long words you have only ever read quickly. Subterfuge and memoirists both look exotic here and both are correct.

Key facts

• Contradiction is contra- meaning against plus dict- meaning speak, and is spelt contradiction.
• Futuristic keeps the whole stem of future: futur- plus -istic.
• Subterfuge and memoirists are spelt correctly in this question, so an unfamiliar word is not automatically the planted error.

Common traps

• Marking subterfuge or memoirists wrong because they look unusual
• Reading for sense rather than spelling, when every line makes sense
• Picking the first line that reads smoothly instead of locating the error in the other three

No directly related past PYQ was found.