Passage Correction Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: work

In the pattern one of those + plural noun + who, the relative pronoun who refers back to the plural noun, not to one. Here who stands for students, so the verb is the plural work. The reasoning becomes clear if the sentence is rearranged: of those students who work hard throughout the year, she is one. It is the students who work hard; she is a member of that group. The trap is that one sits closest to the verb and pulls the ear towards the singular. The rule reverses when the only is added: in she is the only one of those students who works hard, who refers to the only one, and the singular becomes correct. Watch for that phrase, since it flips the answer.

Answer: A

Correct answer: are

Scissors is one of the nouns that exist only in the plural and always take a plural verb: the scissors are lying on the shelf. The group covers things made of two joined parts, and it is worth learning entire: scissors, trousers, spectacles, glasses, pliers, tongs, shears, binoculars, pyjamas and shorts. To count them, a pair of is used - and note that a pair of scissors is becomes singular, because the subject is then pair. A second group is plural in form but singular in sense - news, mathematics, physics, measles, innings - and takes singular verbs. A third looks singular but is plural: police, cattle, people, poultry, vermin. The verb form lying is otherwise correct, from lie – lay – lain, the intransitive verb meaning to rest.

Answer: B

Correct answer: has been working here since

An action that began in the past and continues into the present takes the present perfect continuous, not the present continuous: has been working. The marker is since. It fixes a point at which the action started, which the simple present continuous cannot express - that tense describes only what is happening now, with no reach back into the past. The pairing to remember is since with a point in time (since 2015, since Monday, since he arrived) and for with a length of time (for eight years). Was working since would place the whole span in the past and contradict the present-tense knows that follows. Works here since is a very common error in Indian English but is not standard.

Answer: E

Correct answer: No correction required

The sentence is correct. Hardly is itself a negative word, meaning almost not, and it therefore takes anyone rather than someone. Substituting no one would produce a double negative - hardly no one attended - which in standard English cancels itself and states the opposite of what is meant. The words that carry this hidden negative force are worth learning as a group, because they all reject a second negative: hardly, scarcely, barely, seldom, rarely, little and few. So I can hardly see anything, never hardly see nothing. The same objection defeats without no help, I did not do nothing and neither of them did not come. Note that these words also invert the subject and auxiliary when placed at the head of a sentence - hardly did anyone attend - though the ordinary order used here needs no inversion.

Answer: E

Correct answer: to hearing

In look forward to, the word to is a preposition, not part of an infinitive, and a preposition is always followed by a gerund. Hence look forward to hearing. The test is to try a noun in the same slot. I look forward to the weekend works, which shows that to is a preposition; where it were an infinitive marker no noun could follow. A group of expressions ends in a prepositional to and traps the unwary in the same way: be used to, get used to, be accustomed to, object to, be opposed to, with a view to, be addicted to, confess to and be averse to. Each takes a gerund: accustomed to working, with a view to improving. Note the contrast with used to meaning a past habit - he used to smoke - where to is an infinitive marker and a bare verb follows.

Answer: B

Correct answer: is

Scenery is an uncountable noun and takes a singular verb: the scenery is beautiful. It has no plural form, so sceneries is also wrong. A group of nouns is uncountable in English although the corresponding idea is countable in many Indian languages, and each is a standard examination point: scenery, furniture, luggage, baggage, information, advice, machinery, stationery, equipment, poetry, evidence and news. None takes an -s, and none takes a or an. To count them, a unit noun is needed: a piece of furniture, an item of luggage, a piece of advice. The verb agreement follows from the same fact, which is why the furniture has arrived and the information is correct are both singular.

Answer: E

Correct answer: has been

The subject he is third person singular, so the auxiliary is has, not have: he has been working. The tense itself is correctly chosen. An action that began in the past and continues into the present takes the present perfect continuous, and the marker here is for six years, a period of time. The pairing to remember is for with a duration - for six years, for a month - and since with a starting point: since 2019, since he joined. Had been would place the whole span in the past and imply he no longer works there. Is being and was being are passive continuous forms and cannot take an object the way this sentence requires. A useful check on agreement is to strip the sentence to its bones: he has, they have, she has, we have.

Answer: C

Correct answer: has grown

The subject is the population, singular, so the verb is has grown. Of the city is a prepositional phrase and cannot be the subject. Population is a collective noun and takes a singular verb when the group is treated as a single body, which it is here - one aggregate number has increased. It would take a plural verb only where the individuals are in view: the population were divided in their loyalties. The general rule for this sentence shape is worth applying mechanically: find the head noun, strike out every prepositional phrase after it, and decide the number from what remains. The population has grown settles it. The same collective treatment governs government, committee, jury, team, family, audience, crowd and staff - singular when acting as one, plural when acting severally.

Answer: C

Correct answer: to

Junior takes the preposition to: she is junior to me. The word is a Latin comparative - it already means younger - and words of that origin are completed by to rather than by the English comparative conjunction than. The set is small and worth memorising: junior to, senior to, superior to, inferior to, prior to, anterior to, posterior to and preferable to. Note also that these words are never used with more or most, since they are already comparative in force: more superior and most inferior are both wrong. The pronoun is correct as it stands. Junior to me takes the objective case because the pronoun follows a preposition, so junior to I would be an over-correction of the same kind as between you and I.

Answer: B

Correct answer: than

No sooner is always completed by than, never by when. The pairing to fix in memory is that no sooner takes than, while hardly and scarcely take when. Mixing the two is the commonest error in this construction, and the reason for the difference is that sooner is a comparative, and comparatives are completed by than. Two further features of the pattern are correctly observed in the sentence. It begins with a restrictive adverb, so the subject and auxiliary are inverted - had the bell rung, not the bell had rung. And the earlier of the two past actions takes the past perfect while the later takes the simple past: had rung followed by rushed. Only the linking word is at fault, so than is the single change needed.