Reconstruction of Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: QRSP

The sentence reads:

At least five persons were killed and 32 injured when a passenger train rammed into a stationary goods train early today.

Q is the only main clause and must open the sentence. R begins the when clause and S completes it. P is a time adverb and goes at the end, where it cannot be mistaken for part of the collision.

Answer: A

Correct answer: PQRS

The sentence reads:

Milton said that those persons would be damned who do not obey God's commands.

P supplies the subject of the that clause and Q its verb. R is a relative clause describing those persons, and S is its object.

Answer: C

Correct answer: RPQS

The sentence reads:

To spend my vacation I am planning to go to the hill station where an acquaintance of my father lives.

R is an infinitive of purpose and is placed first, so P and Q can run on as subject, verb and destination. S is a relative clause describing the hill station and must follow it immediately.

Answer: A

Correct answer: PSQR

The sentence reads:

The reporter of the newspaper informs us that Lala Lajpat Rai spent a long period lecturing widely and attracting many American leaders to sympathise with the Indian nationalist position.

P and S together give the verb and its object - what he spent. Q is a participial phrase describing how the time was spent, and R completes attracting… to sympathise.

Answer: C

Correct answer: RQSP

The sentence reads:

I was very excited when my father told me that I could go with him and stay for a few days in Delhi.

R completes I was, so it must come first. Q opens the when clause, S is what was said, and P adds the second half of what was permitted, joined by and to go.

Answer: A

Correct answer: PSQR

The sentence reads:

On reaching the station he first looked around for a coolie and walked down to the platform, and when he could find none he just lifted his luggage.

P must follow the opening participial phrase, since it supplies the subject and verb. S completes looked around for. Q then opens a when clause and R is its main clause; none in Q can only refer to the coolie in S.

Answer: C

Correct answer: RPSQ

The sentence reads:

They are mostly people who work in the neighbourhood, and they find the club very convenient, because it enables them without too much trouble to get a reasonable meal.

R is a relative clause describing people and must follow it at once. P joins the second main clause, S gives the reason, and Q completes enables them… to get.

Answer: B

Correct answer: QPRS

The sentence reads:

I have never met, in your city, a friendliness and hospitality like the one I have met in Calcutta.

Q is a parenthetical phrase and sits next to the verb it qualifies. P is the object of met, R begins the comparison, and S completes it. Putting S before Q would say the speaker met Calcutta rather than met something in it.

Answer: D

Correct answer: SQPR

The sentence reads:

Every body in the universe, whether big or small, attracts every other body with the force of gravitation.

S and Q both describe every body, so they stay with the subject, and only then can the verb in P arrive. R completes every other with its noun and adds the instrument.

Answer: D

Correct answer: SQRP

The sentence reads:

A Sub-inspector of police bent on doing justice to his uniform rounded up a group of 18 miscreants disturbing a public meeting and marched them to the local jail in Shimoga.

S and Q form a participial phrase describing the officer and must follow him. R supplies the main verb, and P is a participle describing the miscreants, so it must follow them.