Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

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.

Answer: B

Correct answer: It is a pleasure to see an alligator as long as 90 feet basking in the sunshine on a river bank.

As long as 90 feet describes the alligator, so it must sit next to alligator. Wherever else it goes it attaches to the nearest noun and says something absurd - a 90-foot sunshine, a 90-foot river bank.

Why the others fail:

• It is pleasure - the article is missing; the idiom is it is a pleasure. The measure is also stranded at the end, where it modifies river bank.
• Placing the phrase after sunshine makes the sunshine ninety feet long.
• Placing it after basking makes it modify the verb, which is meaningless.

Answer: C

Correct answer: This is one of the best films that has been produced this year.

In one of the + plural noun + that, the relative clause describes the whole group, not the single item. The antecedent of that is films, so the verb must be plural: one of the best films that have been produced.

The other three are sound:

• She is one of the best mothers that have ever lived - the same construction, correctly plural.
• None of these words are now current - none takes a plural verb when it refers to a plural noun.
• Sam, as well as Alex and Jack, likes milk - as well as does not make a subject plural.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The boy regretted that with a plastered leg he had spent a greater part of his vacation in the chair.

With a plastered leg belongs to the spending of the vacation, not to the regretting, so it must stand inside the that clause.

Why the others fail:

• he had spend - the past participle of spend is spent.
• Fronting the phrase makes it modify regretted, as though he regretted while wearing the plaster.
• The boy with a plastered leg regretted… - this turns a temporary condition into a permanent description of the boy, and detaches it from the vacation.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The harassed wife shot herself with a gun after bidding her husband the last goodbye

With a gun is the instrument of shot and belongs beside it; the farewell then follows in its own phrase.

Why the others fail:

• Putting with a gun at the end makes the goodbye something said with a gun.
• The harassed wife with a gun shot herself - this describes the wife rather than the shooting.
• With a gun the harassed wife shot herself - grammatical, but the fronted instrument takes an emphasis the sentence does not call for.

Answer: B

Correct answer: We enjoyed during holidays.

Enjoy is a transitive verb and must have an object. Where no thing is named, the object is reflexive: we enjoyed ourselves during the holidays.

The other three are sound:

• He does not know the English alphabet - alphabet means the whole set of letters, so the singular is right.
• Have you ever been there? - correct.
• Ashish gave me this news - news is an uncountable singular.

Answer: C

Correct answer: I despaired for finding my lost watch.

Despair takes of, and the verb after it is a gerund: I despaired of finding my lost watch.

The other three are sound:

• I ascribed his rudeness to his fatigue - ascribe to is correct.
• He derives pleasure from teasing girls - derive from is correct.
• Don't trifle with the girl's affections - trifle with is correct.