Passage Correction Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: has

Each is singular and governs the verb, whatever plural noun follows it. The subject is each, not participants, so the verb is has been given. Of the participants is a prepositional phrase, and no noun inside one can be the subject of the sentence. Removing it leaves each has been given a separate room, which settles the matter at once - and that deletion test works for every sentence of this shape. The other singular indefinites behave identically: every, either, neither, everyone, anyone, someone, nobody and none of the two. Position matters, though. When each follows a plural subject rather than heading the sentence, the verb becomes plural: the participants have each been given a room, where the subject is the participants and each is merely adverbial.

Answer: A

Correct answer: was

With not only…but also, as with either…or and neither…nor, the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it. The nearer subject here is the teacher, singular, so the verb is was. This proximity rule is deliberately tested by putting the plural first. Reversing the order reverses the answer: Not only the teacher but also the students were impressed is equally correct. Good writers usually place the plural nearer the verb for precisely that reason, since the singular after a plural sounds awkward even when it is right. The rule does not extend to and, which always produces a plural subject, nor to as well as and along with, which are parenthetical and leave the number untouched. A second point about not only…but also is that the two parts must be grammatically parallel - both nouns here, and not a noun balanced against a clause.

Answer: C

Correct answer: very

Very modifies adjectives and adverbs in the positive degree, and tired here functions as an ordinary adjective, so very tired is what is wanted. The word much modifies past participles used passively and comparatives: much impressed, much better, much more difficult. Very much is correct before a verb - I very much appreciate it - but not before a simple adjective. The related pair worth learning is very versus too. Very merely intensifies; too means more than is desirable and implies a consequence: he is too tired to continue. Writing too tired where only emphasis is meant reverses the sense, and is among the commonest errors of degree. With comparatives, very is wrong altogether: it is much better or far better, never very better.

Answer: B

Correct answer: No correction required

The sentence is already correct. The last five years is a period of time, and periods take for. The pairing to hold on to is for with a duration - for five years, for a month, for a long while - and since with a point at which something began: since 2019, since Monday, since I joined. Asking whether the phrase answers how long or starting when settles it every time. Since would be correct in since the last five years only if five years ago were meant, which is not what the phrase says. From marks a starting point but needs a stated or implied end - from Monday to Friday - and is not used with the present perfect this way. During answers when, and by sets a deadline. The tense is also right: an action begun in the past and still continuing takes the present perfect continuous.

Answer: C

Correct answer: No correction required

The sentence is correct as it stands. This is direct speech - the speaker’s words are quoted exactly, within quotation marks - so no tense change is required. The backshift of tenses applies only to indirect or reported speech. Converted, the sentence would read: He said that he was leaving for Chennai the next day. Notice that two things change together - the tense moves back one step, and the adverb of time shifts as well. The full set of adverb changes is worth knowing: tomorrow becomes the next day, yesterday becomes the previous day, today becomes that day, now becomes then, here becomes there, this becomes that, and ago becomes before. Since the quotation marks are present, none of that applies, and altering the tense inside them would misquote the speaker.

Answer: B

It should read agonises me most.

What is the subject of the clause, so the verb follows directly without the auxiliary does - the same reason one writes what happened, not what did happen, in a statement. Most then modifies the verb.

Answer: B

It should read were deferred till.

Deferring is postponing to a later time, and the preposition for a point in time is till or until. Deferred into is not English, and the past tense must match was in the first clause.

Answer: A

Correct answer: is that

The reason…is because is redundant, since reason and because both express cause - the sentence states the cause twice. The correct construction is the reason is that. So: The reason for his failure is that he did not prepare well. Alternatively the whole frame can be dropped: He failed because he did not prepare well. Is due to and is because of fail for a different reason: both are followed by a noun phrase, not by a clause. His failure was due to poor preparation is correct; due to he did not prepare is not. The same redundancy appears in the reason why…is because, which piles a third cause word on top, and in expressions such as return back, repeat again and revert back.

Answer: B

It should read get the most severe.

Severe is an adjective describing punishment, so its superlative is the most severe. Mostly means for the greater part and cannot form a superlative at all.

Answer: A

Correct answer: are

In a sentence beginning with there, the word there is only an introductory placeholder; the real subject follows the verb. Here that subject is several reasons, which is plural, so the verb is are. Rearranging the sentence makes it plain: several reasons are there for the delay. This construction catches candidates out because the verb comes before the subject, reversing the usual order and defeating the ear. The same rule governs there is a book on the table and there are books on the table. Where a list follows, standard usage takes the number of the first item: there is a pen and two books on the desk. The related trap is there versus their, and the equally common error of writing there is many, which fails the same agreement test as the sentence here.