Tuesday, February 5, 2008

#197 , GRAMMAR TEST QUESTIONS 1961 TO 1970

ANSWERS TO GRAMMAR TEST #198, QUESTIONS 1971 TO 1980.
Covers AN ASSORTMENT OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS.
Following are the answers. For seeing all the multiple choice questions click:
[Click].

1961. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
The murderers of the Prime Minister, were hung at the Central Jail, yesterday.

b)Incorrect use of a strong verb as a weak verb (incorrect diction).
EXPLANATION:
The verb 'hang' in the meaning of hanging a person, is a weak verb, and 'hanged' is its past tense. 'Hang' in the meaning of hanging inanimate objects like photo-frames is a strong verb and 'hung' is its past tense.

1962. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
How dare you to challenge me in the Cricket Stadium?

b)Use of 'to infinitive' instead of 'plain infinitive';.
EXPLANATION:'How dare you challenge'. The verb 'dare' takes a plain infinitive.

1963. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
There are many different peoples in Asia.

d)No error.
EXPLANATION:Though in general use people is a singular noun, 'different (types of) people (nationalities)' can be used as plural.

1964. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
The queen eats several spoonfuls of sugar every day.

d)No error.
EXPLANATION:Spoonful is accepted as a single word and adding 's' to it to get plural number, is acceptable. Alternatively we have to use a compound word like spoons-ful, which looks clumsy.

1965. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
The copper is a commercially useful metal.

a)Superfluous definite article before the name of a metal.
EXPLANATION:
No need of definite aritcle before names of metals.

1966. Which of the following statements is correct about the following sentence?
Smoking and drinking offer themselves for your choice; this leads to enlargement of liver and that to lung cancer.

c)Grammatically correct, but needs efforts to grasp the meaning. EXPLANATION:The Relative pronoun 'this' relates to the nearest noun i.e. drinking and 'that' relates to the distant noun i.e. 'smoking'. Deriving right meaning is a little strenuous.
Revised clearer sentences may look like: Smoking and drinking offer themselves for your choice. Smoking leads to lung cancer. Drinking leads to enlargement of liver.

1967. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
The soldiers received a reward each.

a)Incorrect location of distributive pronoun.
EXPLANATION:'Each of the soldiers received a reward' will be more clearer. Where there are numerical expressions of amounts of rewards, the distributive pronoun each can be placed at the end such as:
The soldiers received a reward of five hundred dollars each.

1968. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
What use is it, anyway?

a)Omission of a preposition before the subject.
EXPLANATION:'Of what use is it, anyway?'.

1969. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
After much effort, he got an opportunity of meeting the President of France.
d)No error.
EXPLANATION:'Of meeting' is preposition + gerund; 'to meet' is 'to infinitive'. Both are acceptable forms.

1970. Identify the nature of grammatical error in the following sentence:
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:1-7)

d)No error.
EXPLANATION:This Bible statement which uses "except" as conjunction, is acceptable. But this type of usage is gradually becoming archaic.

No comments: