Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in bold type to make the grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark 'E' as the answer.
The courts are actively to safeguard the interests and the rights of the poor.
Answer: B
It should read have been actively safeguarding.
The original has no main verb at all - are actively to safeguard leaves the sentence hanging. The present perfect continuous supplies one and gives the sense of a course of action still going on.
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The drama had many scenes which were so humorous that it was hardly possible to keep a straight face.
Answer: E
No correction is required.
So ... that is the correct correlative pair, and hardly possible to keep uses the infinitive properly. Two of the alternatives introduce hardly impossible, which reverses the meaning by accident.
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Hardly does the sun rise when the stars disappeared.
Answer: B
It should read had the sun risen.
Hardly had X happened when Y is the fixed pattern, with the past perfect in the first clause and inversion after hardly. Risen is the participle the perfect requires; rose is the simple past.
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You will be late if you do not leave now.
Answer: E
No correction is required.
A first conditional puts the present simple in the if-clause and will in the main clause - you will be late if you do not leave. Putting will in the if-clause is the commonest error and is offered here as a trap.
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The train will leave at 8.30 pm, so we have been ready by 7.30 pm to reach the station in time.
Answer: B
It should read must be.
The obligation is present and looks forward to 7.30 pm, so must be ready is required. Have been is a perfect form and points backwards, which contradicts the sentence.
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All the allegations levelled against him were found to be baseless.
Answer: E
No correction is required.
Allegations are levelled against a person - the past participle after were, and against as the preposition. Level with means to speak frankly, which is a different idiom entirely.
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Ramesh is as tall if not, taller than Mahesh.
Answer: C
It should read as tall as, if not.
The full construction is as tall as, if not taller than, Mahesh - the first comparison needs its own second as before the parenthetical clause interrupts. Dropping it leaves as tall ... than, which does not parse.
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He hesitated to listen to what his brother was saying.
Answer: E
No correction is required.
Hesitate takes the infinitive - hesitated to listen. Every alternative either reverses the two verbs or puts one in a form the construction will not take.
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The prosecution failed in establish its case today.
Answer: A
It should read to.
Fail takes the infinitive: failed to establish its case. Failed in would need a noun or gerund after it - failed in establishing - which is heavier and is not what the rest of the sentence offers.
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One of my drawbacks is that I do not have to tolerance of ambiguity.
Answer: A
It should read do not have.
Have to means must; the sentence needs the plain verb have, taking tolerance as its object. The stray to turns a statement about what the speaker lacks into an obligation that never completes.
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