Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase to make the grammatically correct?
Later he became unpopular because he tried to lord it on his followers.
Answer: C
It should read to lord it over.
Lord it over is the idiom, and the it is fixed - it cannot be dropped, and no other preposition will do. It means to behave domineeringly towards.
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Hardly does the sun rise when the stars disappeared.
Answer: D
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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The courts are actively to safeguard the interests and the rights of the poor.
Answer: A
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 train will leave at 8.30 pm, so we have been ready by 7.30 pm so that we can reach the station in time.
Answer: B
Correct answer: must be
The train’s departure is a fixed future event, so being ready is a present obligation looking forward. Have been ready is a present perfect, which reports a state already completed, and that cannot describe something the speaker still has to do.
The modal must supplies exactly the obligation required: the train will leave at 8.30 pm, so we must be ready by 7.30 pm. Were and are both drop the sense of necessity.
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You will be late if you do not leave now
Answer: C
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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My doctor knew that I would eventually recover and do the kind of work I would be doing before.
Answer: A
Correct answer: had been doing
The sentence looks back from a past viewpoint (my doctor knew) to work carried on over a stretch of time even earlier - the period before the illness. That earlier-than-past, continuing sense is exactly what the past perfect continuous expresses.
So: …do the kind of work I had been doing before. Would be doing points forward instead of back, and had been done is passive, which cannot take I as its doer.
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The research study is an eye-opener and attempts to acquaint us with the problems of poor nations.
Answer: C
No correction is required.
Attempt takes the infinitive - attempts to acquaint us. Attempts at would need a noun or gerund after it and changes the rhythm of the sentence without improving it, and the two verbs joined by and are already parallel: is and attempts.
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He dislikes the word dislike, isn’t he
Answer: A
It should read doesn't he.
A question tag reverses the polarity of the statement and repeats its auxiliary. The statement is positive present simple, he dislikes, so the tag is doesn't he.
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In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that best replaces it. If no improvement is needed, choose ‘No correction required’.
Ram is the tallest of all the boys in his class.
Answer: A
Correct answer: of
The superlative degree takes of or in - the tallest of all the boys, the tallest in his class - and the printed sentence is already correct. The rule to fix is that than belongs to the comparative degree and never to the superlative: taller than his brother, but the tallest of the three. Writing tallest than mixes the two degrees. The choice between of and in follows the noun that comes after. Of is used with a group of individuals - of all the boys, of the three brothers - and in with a place or a collective singular: in his class, in the country. Among is used with the comparative in a different pattern, as in he is among the tallest boys, where it means he belongs to a group rather than heading it.
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The prosecution failed in establish its case today.
Answer: B
Correct answer: to
Fail is followed by a to-infinitive, not by in plus a bare verb: the prosecution failed to establish its case today.
The preposition in can follow fail only when a noun or gerund comes next - he failed in his attempt, she failed in establishing her claim. With the plain verb establish, only to is possible.
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