Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: Owing to lack of fuel, many works must close if the strike lasts over the weekend.

Owing to lack of fuel is the reason and is placed at the front, where it governs the whole sentence; the condition then follows the clause it qualifies.

Why the others fail:

• The first option separates owing to lack of fuel from what it explains, and misspells strike.
• The second wedges the reason between the condition and its result.
• Having the strike lasting to the weekend - a participle with no subject, and lasting to is not idiomatic.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The Dacoits robbed my belongings.

Rob takes the victim as its object and the thing taken after of: the dacoits robbed me of my belongings. It is steal that takes the goods as object.

The other three are sound:

• The first two pages of this book are torn - the ordinal precedes the cardinal.
• He came to us every third day - correct.
• He atoned for the sin by giving alms to the poor - atone for is correct.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The thief divested the child from all her jewels.

Divest takes of: one divests a person of something. The same pattern governs rob, deprive and relieve.

The other three are sound:

• Nothing but funny stories delights him - the subject is nothing, so the verb is singular.
• I cannot raise this lid - raise is transitive and correctly used.
• This is the book that I want - correct.

Answer: C

It should read cannot always express.

One conveys a message but expresses oneself; convey ourselves is not idiomatic. Cannot is also written as one word in standard usage.

Answer: A

Correct answer: For many of us our first recollection of the world has been the early age of only three or four years.

The subject is our first recollection and the complement is the age at which it occurred, which is the only arrangement that makes sense of the two ideas.

Why the others fail:

• The early age… would begin our first recollection - an age cannot begin a recollection.
• …would be early age of three or four years - the article is missing and would makes a plain fact conditional.
• …our first recollection of the world being the early age… - a participle where a finite verb is needed, so there is no main clause.

Answer: C

It should read had you told.

Inverting had is the way to form a third conditional without if - had you told me is exactly if you had told me. Been cannot stand between had and told, and if you would have is never correct in the if-clause.

Answer: D

Correct answer: He has invited me for dinner.

One is invited to a meal, not for it. For would name the purpose of the invitation rather than the event: he invited me to dinner.

The other three are sound:

• He has no desire for fame - desire for is the standard collocation.
• I intend going to Calcutta - intend takes either a gerund or a to-infinitive.
• He is too miserly to part with his money - part with is correct for giving something up.

Answer: B

Correct answer: All the boy scouts wear half-pants.

Half-pants is not standard English; the garment is shorts. It is a common regional coinage rather than a grammatical slip, but it is the odd one out here.

The other three are sound:

• He feels bad about the defeat - after feel an adjective is correct, not badly.
• He hopes to secure good marks - hope takes a to-infinitive.
• Sachin is the Bradman of India - a correct use of the definite article before a proper noun used as a type.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Fortunately in thirty seven bomb-blasts only five lives were lost.

Fortunately is a sentence adverb: it comments on the whole statement, so it belongs at the front, where it cannot be mistaken for a comment on any single part.

Why the others fail:

• Placing it after the blasts leaves it ambiguous between the blasts and the losses.
• only five lives were fortunately lost - this says the losing was fortunate.
• In fortunately thirty seven bomb-blasts - the adverb now modifies the number, which is nonsense.

Answer: D

Correct answer: He wasn't rich by any means, but he never turned away anyone who needed help.

The two facts stand in contrast - little money, yet unfailing generosity - and but is the connective that marks a contrast between two independent clauses.

Why the others fail:

• Since he lacked needed money, he never turned down anyone - since makes poverty the cause of his generosity, which reverses the sense.
• although subordinates the wrong half, leaving the emphasis on his poverty.
• Being not rich by any means - the negative is misplaced; English says not being rich.