Sentence Improvement Questions and Answers

Answer: B

It should read see.

Look is intransitive and cannot take anything as its object - one looks at something. See takes an object directly, and is what a dark room prevents.

Answer: A

Correct answer: has risen

The number of is singular and takes a singular verb: the number of road accidents has risen. It contrasts directly with a number of, which means several and is plural: a number of accidents have been reported. The article alone decides the agreement, which is why the pair appears so often in examinations. The logic is that the number names one figure, while a number of is merely a way of saying many, leaving the plural noun as the real subject. A related pair works by meaning rather than by article: the majority of the work is done but the majority of the workers are absent - there the verb follows the noun after of. The verb form is otherwise right: rise is intransitive, with forms rise – rose – risen, and takes no object, unlike the transitive raise.

Answer: C

Correct answer: to me

Junior takes the preposition to, never than: he 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. The set is small enough to memorise: junior to, senior to, superior to, inferior to, prior to, anterior to, posterior to and preferable to. Because they are already comparative, none may take more or most: more senior and most inferior are both wrong. Than mine compounds the error by changing the pronoun as well: mine is possessive and would compare his seniority with a thing of mine rather than with me. The pronoun after the preposition takes the objective case, so to me, never to I.

Answer: B

Correct answer: was

Furniture is uncountable and takes a singular verb: the furniture was replaced. It has no plural, so furnitures is also wrong, and it cannot take a or an. To refer to one item a unit noun is required: a piece of furniture, three items of furniture. It belongs to the group of nouns countable in many Indian languages but not in English: information, advice, luggage, baggage, machinery, stationery, equipment, scenery, poetry, evidence, bread and news. Each takes a singular verb and is quantified with much and less. The singular conference room in the intervening phrase has no bearing on the agreement; the subject remains the furniture. The passive is correctly used, since the furniture received the action rather than performing it.

Answer: D

No improvement is needed.

More than one takes a singular verb, because the noun immediately before the verb is singular: more than one person was killed. It is a fixed exception, and the same topic's earlier question keys it the same way.

Answer: C

Correct answer: is

When a plural expression of money, time, distance or weight is treated as a single quantity, it takes a singular verb. Ten thousand rupees here is one sum, so is is correct. The same applies to twenty years is a long time, ten kilometres is a long walk, fifty kilos is heavy and three hours is enough. In each the plural noun names one measured amount rather than several separate items. The verb turns plural only when the individual units are genuinely in view: the ten thousand rupees were counted note by note. The principle behind it is that agreement follows meaning rather than form wherever the two diverge - the same principle that lets a collective noun take a singular or plural verb according to whether the group acts as one body or as individuals.

Answer: A

Correct answer: is

Neither is singular and governs the verb: neither of the two candidates is suitable. The plural candidates is the object of the preposition of, and no noun inside a prepositional phrase can be the subject of a sentence. Deleting the phrase leaves neither is suitable, which settles it. The same holds for either, each, every one, none of the two, everyone, anybody and nobody. A different rule governs neither…nor joining two subjects: there the verb agrees with the nearer one, so neither the chairman nor the members were present is correct. The two constructions look alike and are constantly confused, so it is worth noticing whether of or nor follows. None is the one flexible word in the group, taking either verb according to sense - but none of the two is always singular.

Answer: A

Correct answer: was

As well as is a parenthetical phrase, not a conjunction joining two subjects. The subject remains the chief guest, singular, so the verb is was. The family of phrases that behaves this way is worth learning together: as well as, along with, together with, with, besides, in addition to, accompanied by, including and no less than. None changes the number of the subject. The deletion test is decisive: strike the phrase out and read what remains - the chief guest was served refreshments. The contrast is with and, which genuinely creates a compound plural subject: the chief guest and the students were served is correct. Examiners rely on the plural noun standing immediately before the verb, which pulls the ear towards the plural even where the grammar does not.

Answer: D

It should read command.

A command of metaphor is mastery of it - the rendering of Aristotle's remark on style. A use of metaphor names a single instance, and knowledge of it would be theoretical rather than practical.

Answer: A

It should read lend me a few rupees.

Few without an article means hardly any, which no one would ask for; a few means a small number. Borrow also runs the wrong way - the speaker asks the other person to lend.