Passage Correction Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: why they were

Two errors are combined in the printed phrase. First, that is not used with an interrogative word. Reported questions beginning with why, what, where, when or how are introduced by that word alone; that introduces reported statements. Second, a reported question takes statement word order - subject before verb - not the inverted order of a direct question. So why they were late, not why were they late. The direct form would be: The teacher asked the students, “Why are you late?” Converting it drops the quotation marks and the question mark, reverses the inversion, and shifts the tense back one step. A yes-or-no question is reported with if or whether instead: he asked whether they were late.

Answer: A

Correct answer: No correction required

The sentence is already correct, so no improvement is needed. When two past actions are described, the earlier one takes the past perfect and the later one takes the simple past. The train left first and the arrival came second, so had already left is correctly paired with reached. Putting both verbs in the past perfect - had left and had reached - would destroy the sequence, since the whole purpose of the past perfect is to mark one action as prior to another. The word already is a further signal: it belongs naturally with the perfect tenses and confirms that the departure preceded the arrival. The same pattern governs hardly had he arrived when, no sooner had she spoken than, and reported speech, where a simple past in the original becomes past perfect after a past reporting verb.

Answer: D

Correct answer: No correction required

The sentence is already correct. Would like is the standard polite form for expressing a wish or making a request, and it is followed by an infinitive: I would like to thank. Will like means something different - it predicts future enjoyment, as in you will like the film - and cannot express a present intention. Am liking fails because like is a stative verb, describing a state rather than an action, and stative verbs are not normally used in continuous tenses. The same applies to know, believe, understand, want, prefer, own, belong and seem. Would have liked shifts the sentence into the past and implies the thanks were never given - the opposite of what is meant here. Note the parallel with would rather and had better, both of which take a bare infinitive instead: I would rather go.

Answer: E

No correction is required.

They were all shocked at his failure is correct: all follows the auxiliary were, and shocked at is the usual collocation. The alternatives move all to the wrong side of the verb or change the preposition unnecessarily.

Answer: B

It should read speaks for itself.

To speak for itself is the fixed idiom - the evidence needs no explanation from me. Speaking about or to itself would mean something quite different, and the present simple is right for a general truth.

Answer: A

It should read to tolerate.

Too ... to is the fixed construction: too important to tolerate any delay. Too ... for takes a noun, not a gerund clause.

Answer: E

Correct answer: getting up

In be used to, meaning accustomed to, the word to is a preposition, so it is followed by a gerund: used to getting up early. This must be kept apart from used to expressing a discontinued past habit, where to is an infinitive marker and a bare verb follows: he used to get up early means he no longer does. The two are spelt identically and mean quite different things - one is a present state of habituation, the other a past habit now abandoned. The test is whether a noun can replace what follows. He is used to the cold works, which shows to is a preposition; he used to the cold does not. The same prepositional to appears in look forward to, get used to, be accustomed to, object to, with a view to and be addicted to, all of which take gerunds.

Answer: B

Correct answer: you to submit

Want is followed by an object and an infinitive, never by a that clause: the manager wants you to submit the report. The construction want that is very common in Indian English but is not standard, because want belongs to the group of verbs that take an infinitive complement. Others in the group include expect, advise, allow, ask, tell, order, persuade, encourage, force and request. So he asked me to wait, they expected him to arrive. Verbs that do take a that clause are a different set - say, suggest, insist, demand, propose, recommend - and several of those take the subjunctive: he suggested that she submit the report, without should and without the -s. Rewriting with one of those verbs is the alternative repair.

Answer: A

Correct answer: had known

In a third conditional - an unreal condition in the past - the if clause takes the past perfect and the main clause takes would have plus the past participle. So: If I had known about the delay, I would have taken another train. The error here is putting would in the if clause. The rule of thumb is that would never appears in the if clause of a conditional; it belongs in the result clause. The three conditionals are worth holding together. First: if it rains, we will cancel - a real possibility. Second: if it rained, we would cancel - unlikely or hypothetical present. Third: if it had rained, we would have cancelled - contrary to what actually happened in the past. Only the third fits a sentence about a train already missed.

Answer: A

It should read images.

What is worshipped is an image of a god - a representation made for that purpose. A shape is merely a form, and carries none of the sense of a made likeness.