SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 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 10 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 contains a spelling error.

(a)The venerated singer was also secretive, moody and very intense, famous for erratic
(b)Elephants are in trouble mainly because people desire ivory trinkets that are made of
(c)Researchers recommend that pesticides should not be used indiscriminately as they
(d)Journalism is often the work of painstaking rigour and perseverence that detail the

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The misspelt word is perseverence. The noun built on the verb persevere ends in -ance, so the spelling is perseverance → option (d).

Do not let rigour in the same line pull you off: that is the British spelling of rigor, and it is correct as printed.

The remaining three options are spelt correctly throughout, however odd they look — every option in this item breaks off mid-sentence, and that is how the paper prints them.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The venerated singer was also secretive, moody and very intense, famous for erratic — Nothing is misspelt here. Venerated, secretive and erratic are all as the dictionary has them, and the line's abrupt ending is not a spelling fault.
(b)
Elephants are in trouble mainly because people desire ivory trinkets that are made of — Nothing is misspelt here either. Trinkets and ivory are correct, and desire keeps its single r and final e.
(c)
Researchers recommend that pesticides should not be used indiscriminately as they — This line is clean too. Recommend has one c and two m's as printed, and indiscriminately and pesticides are both correct.

Concept

Spelling items in Tier-I hang on a small set of endings that English spells inconsistently, and -ance against -ence is the busiest of them.

There is no rule that decides every case, which is why these words are learnt as a list: perseverance, maintenance, appearance and resistance take -ance, while existence, persistence and independence take -ence.

The second habit worth building is to leave British spellings alone. Rigour, colour, labour and behaviour are correct in an SSC paper and are never the planted error.

The four options are printed as truncated fragments, ending mid-clause. That is the paper's formatting, not the defect you are hunting.

Key facts

The noun of persevere is perseverance, spelt with -ance.
Recommend carries one c and two m's.
Rigour is the British spelling and rigor the American, and both are correct spellings.
Maintenance is spelt -ten-, not -tain-, although the verb is maintain.

Study next

The -ance and -ence ending lists that SSC recyclesDouble-letter traps: accommodate, occurrence, embarrass, harassBritish against American spellings that are both correct in an SSC paper

Common traps

Flagging rigour as a mistake because the American spelling is more familiar.
Looking for a grammar error when the item asks only about spelling.
Judging an option wrong because it stops mid-sentence.

SSC runs this in two shapes: four sentences with one misspelt word inside, and four bare words with one misspelt.

The bare-word form is at English Q.19 of this 26 Sep 2024, 9:00 am sitting, where Recieve is the error beside necessary, accommodate and possession.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.