Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: Laziness is detrimental for success.

Detrimental takes to, not for: laziness is detrimental to success.

The other three are sound:

• Neither you nor I am in a sound position - the verb agrees with the nearer subject, I.
• He begged the favour of my granting him leave - the possessive before a gerund is correct.
• Your action is not in conformity with the law - conformity with is the right pairing.

Answer: D

Correct answer: He came in very quickly so that he might avoid waking his father.

So that introduces the purpose, and might is the correct past-referring modal after a past main verb.

Why the others fail:

• He came in too quickly to avoid waking his father - too… to means the result was not achieved, which reverses the sense.
• He entered in quickly - enter is transitive and takes no in.
• Having not to wake his father - not an English construction; the negative participle would be not having, and even then it would not express purpose.

Answer: C

Correct answer: He is the eldest man of this village.

A superlative is followed by in before a place: the eldest man in this village. Of is used before a group of people (the eldest of the brothers).

The other three are sound:

• Sumit is my elder brother - elder is correct attributively within a family.
• He is two years younger to me - junior/senior to takes to, and this follows that pattern.
• Ravi is five years older than me - correct.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Many a glorious deeds were done.

Many a is always followed by a singular noun and a singular verb, however plural the sense feels. The sentence should read many a glorious deed was done.

The other three are sound:

• Our followers are but a handful - but here means only.
• Neither he nor I was there - with neither… nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, I.
• Everyone of the boys loves to ride - everyone is singular.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Ajay will be working in this office upon completing twenty years by next June.

The main clause has a complete verb, will be working, and upon completing correctly attaches the length of service to the subject.

Why the others fail:

• Ajay will be twenty years working in the office - there is no such construction; a duration needs for.
• Being twenty years completed - a dangling participle with no subject to attach to.
• Till June next year, Ajay will work… for twenty years - till and a completed span of twenty years pull against each other.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The receptionist should answer courteously the questions of all the callers.

Should states what is proper for the receptionist to do, which is what a rule of conduct expresses; of all the callers stays next to questions, the noun it belongs to.

Why the others fail:

• the questions what are asked by the callers - what cannot serve as a relative pronoun here; it would have to be that or which.
• answer the questions courteously of all the callers - the adverb splits questions from of all the callers.
• The receptionist courteously should answer… - the adverb is placed before the modal, which is not the natural position.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The proceeds of the charity show are for riot victims.

Proceeds exists only in the plural and takes a plural verb, so are is right.

Why the others fail:

• He asked Robert and I to go - the pronoun is an object, so it must be me. Removing Robert and makes this audible.
• The weather of this place - weather is in a place, not of it.
• Either Albert or his friends has done it - with either… or the verb agrees with the nearer subject, friends, so it should be have.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Nobody will want to play in his team if he does not treat people kindly.

Cause and effect are the right way round: unkind treatment is the condition, unwillingness to play the consequence. The if clause is in the present, the main clause in the future.

Why the others fail:

• nobody will play to want his team - the infinitive and its verb have swapped places.
• Nobody will treat people kindly if he does not want to play… - the condition and consequence are reversed.
• The last option scrambles the verbs so that kindly attaches to playing rather than to treating.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Travelling from Karjat to Khandala, one finds the line most beautifully laid.

The participial phrase and the main clause share the same subject, one, so the modifier is properly attached.

Why the others fail:

• As one travels… he finds… - the pronoun changes from one to he in mid-sentence.
• would find makes a plain observation conditional for no reason.
• The last option repeats the one… he inconsistency.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Let me put my sign here.

A sign is a mark or a notice; what one writes at the foot of a document is a signature. Let me put my signature here, or simply let me sign here.

The other three are sound:

• These cattle are mine - cattle is plural.
• He examined the book closely - correct.
• He has no knowledge of and no interest in music - each noun keeps its own preposition.