Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

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.

Answer: A

Correct answer: I found out that he was guilty.

The phrasal verb find out is correctly used, and the reported clause keeps the past tense in line with found.

Why the others fail:

• Much pains has been taken - pains in the sense of effort is plural and needs have.
• The jury was divided in their opinions - a collective noun takes a plural verb when its members act separately, and their already admits as much: the jury were divided.
• Neither of the men were tall - neither is singular, so it needs was.

Answer: B

Correct answer: The committee is divided on this issue.

A collective noun takes a singular verb when the body acts as one and a plural verb when its members act separately. Being divided is precisely the members acting separately, so it must be the committee are divided.

The other three are sound:

• Bread and butter is wholesome food - a single dish, so singular.
• It being a wet day, we kept indoors - a correct absolute construction.
• The cattle are grazing in the fields - cattle is always plural.

Answer: A

It should read images.

What is worshipped is an image of a god - a representation made for that purpose. A shape is merely a form, and carries none of the sense of a made likeness.