Sentence Improvement Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: one’s

The indefinite pronoun one must be followed by one’s, and by one and oneself in the corresponding positions. Mixing it with his, their or your is inconsistent. So the sentence should read one should always do one’s duty, and similarly one must keep one’s promises and one should not deceive oneself. British usage is firm on this. American usage permits one…his, but Indian competitive examinations follow the British convention, so one’s is expected. The alternative is to avoid one altogether and rewrite with you or people: you should always do your duty. What cannot be done is to begin with one pronoun and continue with another. The same consistency is required of everyone and somebody, though there the plural their is now widely accepted as a gender-neutral option.

Answer: C

It should read since.

Since is the adverb that goes with the present perfect - she has since recovered. Later and afterwards belong with a simple past.

Answer: A

Correct answer: No improvement

The sentence needs no improvement. Which is a legitimate relative pronoun for a thing, and the clause which I borrowed from you properly modifies the book. The distinction sometimes urged between that and which - that for defining clauses and which for non-defining ones set off by commas - is a matter of style rather than of grammar, and both are accepted in a defining clause with no comma, as here. So that is an alternative, not a correction. What is wrong because it cannot follow an expressed antecedent: it already means the thing which and would duplicate the book. Whom is used only of people, and only as an object. Note that that becomes the required relative after a superlative and after all, only, any, none, nothing and the same.

Answer: C

Correct answer: distributed the sweets among

Between is used of two; among of more than two. With forty children, among is required. The rule is not purely arithmetical. Between is correct wherever the items are considered individually and in relation to each other, which is why a treaty between the five nations is good English - each nation stands in a distinct relation to every other. Among treats a group collectively and indistinctly, which is exactly what distribution to a class does. The verb also matters here: one distributes something among recipients, and the collocation is fixed. In and within would describe location rather than division, so neither can replace the preposition of distribution. The related pair to keep in mind is each other for two and one another for more than two, though that distinction is now widely relaxed.

Answer: A

Correct answer: very

Very modifies adjectives in the positive degree, and anxious is an ordinary adjective, so very anxious is what is wanted. 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 against too. Very merely intensifies; too means more than is desirable and implies a consequence: too anxious to sleep. Writing too 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. And with superlatives very returns: the very best.

Answer: B

It should read to my watching.

Object to takes a gerund, and the person doing the gerund's action is shown by a possessive - my watching, not me watching. The same rule gives I appreciate your coming.

Answer: A

Correct answer: it if you could send

Appreciate is a transitive verb and needs an object. An if clause cannot serve as one, so the anticipatory it must be supplied: I would appreciate it if you could send the report. The it stands in for the situation described by the clause that follows, exactly as it does in I would like it if you came early and I hate it when people interrupt. The alternative construction avoids the difficulty by giving appreciate a straightforward noun or gerund object: I would appreciate your sending the report by Friday. Note that the possessive your is preferred there before a gerund, not you. That cannot introduce a conditional clause, and when would change the meaning from a request to a statement about timing. The omission is very common in business correspondence but remains an error.

Answer: D

Correct answer: returned

Return already means to come or go back, so adding back repeats the idea. The correct form is simply he returned from Delhi. This is pleonasm - using more words than the sense requires - and English has a familiar set of such redundancies that examiners draw on: revert back, repeat again, reply back, join together, ascend up, descend down, connect together, final conclusion, free gift, new innovation, past history and advance planning. Most arise because a Latin prefix already carries the sense the English particle repeats: re- means back, ad- means to, de- means down. Note that come back, go back and give back are perfectly correct, since those verbs carry no such prefix. The objection is to the doubling, not to the word back itself.

Answer: D

Correct answer: me

After let, the pronoun is the object of the verb and must be in the objective case: let you and me. The error is an over-correction. Speakers are taught that you and I is right in you and I went - where the pair is the subject - and then apply it everywhere, producing let you and I and between you and I, both wrong. The reliable test is to remove the other person: nobody would say let I resolve this matter, which settles it at once. The same test disposes of between you and me and he invited my brother and me. Myself is reflexive and correct only when the subject and object are the same person, as in I hurt myself; it is not a polite substitute for me. Us would work in let us resolve but not alongside you and, which already names the parties.

Answer: A

Correct answer: are

In a sentence beginning with there, that word is only an introductory placeholder; the real subject follows the verb. Here it is several reasons, plural, so the verb is are. Rearranging makes it plain: several reasons are there for the rejection. The 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 against 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. A related point often tested alongside it: there as a placeholder must be distinguished from their, the possessive, and from they’re, the contraction.