Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in italics type to make the grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is.
Young men and women should get habituated to reading and writing about current affairs.
Answer: D
No improvement is needed.
Get habituated to takes a gerund and means to grow accustomed. Get used to would also work, but used is offered here without to, which would leave the construction incomplete.
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The poor villagers have waited in the bitter cold for more than 4 hours now.
Answer: A
It should read have been waiting.
The waiting began in the past and is still going on - the now says so - which is what the present perfect continuous expresses. The simple present perfect would suggest the waiting is over.
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The old man felled some trees in the garden with hardly no effort at all.
Answer: B
It should read hardly any effort.
Hardly is already a negative, so hardly no is a double negative that cancels itself. The correct pairing is hardly any - the same rule that gives hardly anyone and scarcely ever.
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The company goes to great length to ensure that employees can be comfortable in their work environment.
Answer: A
It should read are comfortable.
The company ensures a fact, not a possibility, so the plain present is right. Can be would say only that comfort is possible, which is weaker than the sentence intends.
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I want you to clearly understand that excuses won't do
Answer: D
No improvement is needed.
I want you to clearly understand is a split infinitive, and splitting an infinitive has never been a rule of English - it was imported from Latin, where infinitives are single words and cannot be split. The adverb sits where the emphasis wants it.
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He was fined for careless driving.
Answer: D
No improvement is needed.
He was fined is the correct passive: the court fined him. Got fined is colloquial, and fined alone leaves the sentence with no auxiliary.
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In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that improves it. If the sentence needs no change, choose ‘No improvement’.
Hardly we had boarded the train when it began to move.
Answer: B
Correct answer: had we
When a sentence opens with a negative or restrictive adverb, the subject and auxiliary are inverted, taking the word order of a question: hardly had we boarded. The adverbs that trigger this form a set worth learning: hardly, scarcely, barely, no sooner, seldom, rarely, never, little, nowhere, not only, and phrases such as under no circumstances and at no time. The inversion occurs only when the adverb is fronted. In ordinary order none is needed: we had hardly boarded the train when it began to move is equally correct. Did we fails on a further count - the sentence already has the auxiliary had, and do is supplied only where no other auxiliary is present. Note also the correct pairing: hardly takes when, which the sentence already has.
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In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that improves it. If the sentence needs no change, choose ‘No improvement’.
The chairman informed to the members about the change in schedule.
Answer: B
Correct answer: informed the members
Inform is a transitive verb and takes a direct object with no preposition: informed the members. It belongs to a group of verbs that are transitive in English but attract an unnecessary preposition in Indian usage: discuss, describe, emphasise, investigate, order, request, resemble, accompany, reach, enter, approach, obey, marry and inform. One does not discuss about a matter or reach at a station. What follows the object may of course take a preposition, and about is correct there: informed the members about the change, or informed the members of the change. The corresponding nouns do take prepositions - information about, a discussion about - which is precisely where the confusion originates.
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In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that improves it. If the sentence needs no change, choose ‘No improvement’.
The teacher advised the boy for working harder.
Answer: A
Correct answer: to work
Advise takes an object followed by an infinitive: advised the boy to work harder. It belongs to the large group of verbs that share this pattern: ask, tell, allow, permit, order, request, persuade, encourage, warn, remind, force, expect and want. So he warned them to be careful, she reminded me to call. Advise can also be followed directly by a gerund with no object: the teacher advised working harder. What it cannot take is a preposition before the gerund, which is the error here. A spelling point often tested alongside: advise with an s is the verb, advice with a c is the noun - and the noun is uncountable, so one gives a piece of advice, never an advice. The same s-and-c distinction separates practise from practice.
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In the sentence below, a part is printed in bold. Choose the alternative that improves it. If the sentence needs no change, choose ‘No improvement’.
He said that he will submit the report the next day.
Answer: B
Correct answer: would submit
When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb in the reported clause moves back one step in time. Will becomes would, so he said that he would submit the report. The full sequence is worth learning as a set: present becomes past, present continuous becomes past continuous, present perfect and simple past both become past perfect, will becomes would, can becomes could, may becomes might, and must becomes had to. The adverbs shift too, and the examiner has left the clue in place: tomorrow has already become the next day. Likewise today becomes that day, yesterday becomes the previous day, here becomes there, and this becomes that. The one exception is a universal truth, which keeps its present tense: he said that the earth revolves round the sun.
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