Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

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.

Answer: D

Correct answer: He challenged me for a duel.

One is challenged to a contest, not for it: he challenged me to a duel.

The other three are sound:

• She had finished her work when I met her - the past perfect for the earlier of two past events.
• Do you believe in God? - believe in for faith in something's existence.
• He cut his hand with a knife - correct.

Answer: C

Correct answer: We got out of the swimming pool and dried us.

When the subject and the object are the same people, the object must be a reflexive pronoun: we… dried ourselves.

The other three are sound:

• It is time you went to bed - it is time is followed by the past subjunctive.
• There is no end to troubles - correct.
• He gloried in his victory - glory in is the right form.

Answer: A

Correct answer: He is employed with a factory.

One is employed in a factory, or at or by a firm. Employed with is not idiomatic.

The other three are sound:

• Kashmir is celebrated for its scenery - celebrated for is correct.
• I am convinced of my error - convinced of a fact.
• His betrayal was fatal to our plans - fatal to is the right pairing.

Answer: A

Correct answer: I have read such a lot about him that I am looking forward to seeing him very much.

The present perfect have read covers reading up to now and fits the present am looking forward. Such… that is correctly paired, and look forward to takes a gerund.

Why the others fail:

• I am reading… that I will be looking forward - the result is pushed into the future, though it is felt now.
• Having read such a lot… that… - the participle leaves such… that without a main clause, and the object of seeing is missing.
• I had read… that I am looking forward - a past perfect cannot govern a present result.