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English Questions – Spotting Error Set 104

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It is always good to cover all the areas before going in a battle. With regard to this, the following exercise will help you prepare for the upcoming SBI exam. It is totally based on grammar and cover almost all the topics.

  • Level – Very Hard
  • Time – 15 minutes
  • Par Score – 5

Directions: Five sentences have been given in each question, out of which only one is grammatically and structurally correct. Identify the correct sentence and mark that as your answer.

  1. A. As an important member of WTO, India has been in the forefront of framing fair global rules, regulations and safeguards and advocated the interests of the developing world.
    B. About 82% Indians were in favour of demonetization as they thought that it would prove to be remarkable towards eradication of black money.
    C. The UPA government denied to have any hand in the latest coal scandal, unearthed by the apex investigation agency, CBI
    D. Inspite of being a farmer’s son, he worked to his maximum capacity but his hardwork did not bore any fruit
    E. You have to analyze areas such as tax reforms, foreign exchange markets and trade and investment sectors which receive greater attention in and after 1991
    Answer – B
    Explanation :
    A – Preposition ‘in’ should be replaced with ‘at’, it should be ‘at the forefront’
    C- deny(verb) always uses a Gerund (Verb + ing). Ex – He denied stealing (not to steal) the pen. So, it should be ‘denied having’ in the sentence.
    D – Did requires first form of the verb, hence it should be ‘bear’ not ‘bore’.
    E – Replace ‘receive’ with ‘received’. Sentence talks of things which have happened in the past (sectors getting attention in 1991), hence verb should be used accordingly.

  2. A. However, there is an opposing group of public intellectuals that consider social justice to be of paramount importance in India as well as abroad
    B. Yet, not only has safety not been a priority in the state-owned mines but the govt seems to have turned a full circle with the outsourcing of jobs to private contractors.
    C. Education level of children between the age group 10 to 18 years has been deteriorating swiftly due to scarcity of qualified teachers especially in the schools in rural areas.
    D. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) has opted to sit pat on rates and choose to give itself time to assess how the transitory effects of demonetization on inflation and the output gap play out.
    E. Two commandos were rescued by Indian Coast Guard when the Pakistan Marine Security Agency’s boat capsized in the Indian territorial waters.
    Answer – E
    Explanation :
    A – Replace ‘consider’ with ‘considers’. Subject here is not ‘intellectuals’ but ‘group’ (singular), hence the verb ‘consider’ has to be used accordingly. GYAAN – Remember that prepositional phrase (OF public intellectuals) can never have main subject in the sentence.
    B – ‘Not only’ is used in conjunction with ‘but also’. Hence the sentence should be ‘but also the govt seems…….’.
    C – ‘Between’ should be replaced with ‘in’. If ‘between’ is to be used, sentence should be – Children between the age 10 and 18. Here we are talking of an age group and the children who come under (or in) this age group.
    D- In the sentence MPC has opted (past participle or third form of verb) & choose (first form of verb)- the two verbs are not coherent.

  3. A. In rural areas, the quota has helped to improve local governance and enhancing outcomes in delivery of civic services related to drinking water, sanitation and irrigation, among others.
    B. That promise requires amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, particularly the much-too-broad and subjective Section 13(1)(d) that has resulted in many an honest officers being charge sheeted for the corruption.
    C. The transaction under this system may be made for amounts inclusive of paisa component when there is no upper value limit for putting through an individual NEFT transaction.
    D. CBI has solved the case of suicide in one of Bangalore’s posh areas and has accused the Sharma family but only the mastermind Suresh and not his relatives were arrested.
    E. Research on labour market discrimination against disadvantaged social groups based on caste, and religion have received very little attention among social scientists.
    Answer – C
    Explanation :
    A- Parallelism in English requires verbs to be coherent. I love to dance; I love singing – if we join these two sentences with conjunction ‘and’ then sentences would be: I love singing and dancing or I love to sing and dance. In the same way, two verbs here – improve & enhancing – must be coherent. Hence replace ‘enhancing’ with ‘enhance’.
    B- Many persons go to Delhi; Many a person goes to Delhi. Both the sentences are correct and have same meaning, just the syntax is different. Many a/an + noun (singular) + verb (singular). Hence replace ‘officers’ with ‘officer’.
    D-emphasizes that only Suresh ‘was’ arrested, not his relatives. Hence the main subject here is only ‘Suresh’, so use ‘was’ in place of ‘were’. Ex – I and not my brothers am invited; Players and not the captain were called.
    E – Main subject here is ‘research’, hence the auxiliary (or helping verb) used in C, ‘have’ should be replaced by ‘has’. Research has received little attention.

  4. A. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is a government body who is responsible for regulating investments received by Indian factories from foreign countries.
    B. In a strange incident during the dope testing, when the doctors found that Tyson Gay had taken prohibited drugs, he reported the matter to the concerned authorities
    C. The number of failures of any indigenously manufactured product in the final quality inspection are increasing every year
    D. While race as a category may have been discredited in science, the primordial loyalties that early observers had characterised as racial remain to this day
    E. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced a bill to amend the Income Tax law, which provides for black money declarants a mandatory taxing of 25 per cent of the amount undisclosed.
    Answer – D
    Explanation :
    A – ‘Which’ (a pronoun) is used for non-living things; in this case, it has been used for FIPB . ‘Who’ (a pronoun) is used when referring to people or living things
    B – Subject here is ‘Doctors’ (plural), hence use pronoun ‘they’ instead of ‘he’
    C- use ‘is’ instead of ‘are’. The primary subject here is ‘number’ not ‘failures’. GYAAN – Remember that prepositional phrase (OF failures) never contains main subject of the sentence.
    E – ‘Taxing’ is a verb; to modify a verb we need an adverb, hence it should be ‘Mandatorily’. Mandatory is an adjective.

  5. A .Meanwhile, government has made several exception, allowing people to use invalid currency notes for buying petrol, diesel, rail and air tickets, payment off public utilities, taxes and government hospitals.
    B. Long queues were witnessed on November 10, the day on which banks opened after the announcement of demonetisation as people thronged banks and post offices to exchange and deposit invalid currency notes.
    C. Some strategists argue that merely by reaching out to Romney, Trump was demonstrating an openness to new people and ideas, even from unlikeliest of sources
    D. Both Romney as well as Trump put on a show of smiles, a public handshake and a thumbs-up on Saturday after the announcement of President-elect
    E. It is clear that Trump and Romney’s strategies were hugely apart and more than a public attempt to bury the hatchet after trading ferocious insults during the campaign.
    Answer – B
    Explanation :
    A – Several means many, hence the noun following it should be plural. Replace ‘exception’ with ‘exceptions’.
    C – Superlative degree of adjective must be preceded by article ‘the’. Hence it should be ‘the unlikeliest of sources’
    D – When joining two nouns with ‘both’, ‘and’ should be used as conjunction. Hence ‘as well as’ should be replaced with ‘and’
    E – It should be “Trump’s and Romney’s strategies”. Understand the usage when two subjects are involved.
    1.Where two or more people own one item together or are involved in same thing or are related to the thing talked of in the sentence, then place an apostrophe before an “s” only after the second-named person. For example:
    Incorrect: Bill’s and Mary’s car was yellow
    Correct: Bill and Mary’s car was yellow
    2.However, when two or more people own two or more items separately, each individual’s name should take the possessive form. For example:
    Incorrect: Joanne and Todd’s cars were bought from the same dealer
    Correct: Joanne’s and Todd’s cars were bought from the same dealer

  6. A. Far from rising to the responsibilities of the new compact, the polity reverted its default position of the 1990s, with short-term power grabs and spells of political instability.
    B. I couldn’t recognize her initially but on a closer look, I found the black tall woman in red dress was none other than Chan’s wife
    C. What’s wrong with BCCI is not that it has monopoly over cricket in India but it is the BCCI who decides the cost of providing cricket coverage to channels
    D. Despite the attempts by the government to bring international students to India, the experience of foreign students here has not always been a happy one.
    E. Kelkar Committee appointed by Railway found that no less than 160 people were killed in the recent mishap, described as the most fatal accident since independence
    Answer – D
    Explanation :
    A – ‘Reverted’ must be followed by preposition ‘to’. Revert – return to a previous state, practice etc.
    B- When using multiple adjectives, sequence has to be followed:
    a- What we think (Lovely, beautiful, intelligent, nice, fine…)
    b- Size (small, big, large, short, tall…)
    c- Age (young, old…)
    d- Shape (round, slim, fat, square…)
    e- Color (white, green, red…)
    f- Material (plastic, glass, wooden…)
    g- Origin (German, Russian, American…)
    So, the sentence should be- tall(size) black (color) woman
    C- At all times, coherence should be maintained in a sentence. It should be : ‘BCCI is not that……but that it is……’.  . Conjunction ‘but’ joins two sentences
    1. What’s wrong with BCCI is not that it has ……….. +
    2.What’s wrong with BCCI is that it is the BCCI……….
    E- ’Less’ refers to quantity (uncountable noun), whereas ‘fewer’ is used in case of number (or countable noun). So replace ‘less’ with ‘fewer’.

  7. A. My boss does not believe that I am working sincerely and obediently for the interest of the company for all these years
    B. The Supreme Court made playing of the national anthem mandatory before movie screenings in theatres through the country, underlining that it would instill a sense of committed patriotism in citizens
    C. With a view to enhance the spectrum of tourism govt has come up with a new plan of tourism circuits to be implemented in 2019
    D. When Mathrani made this allegation, Natwar Singh was on a flight returning from an official visit to abroad where he did a lot of work
    E. 18 months later, he had to resign under a cloud after the UN’s Volcker committee named both him and the Congress party as beneficiaries of illegal pay-offs in the Iraqi oil scam
    Answer -E 
    Explanation :
    A – Replace ‘I am’ with ‘I have been’. Continuous tense in place of perfect continuous is incorrect when time is mentioned or implied. Ex-
    Incorrect: I am doing this work for 2 hours.
    Correct: I have been doing this work for 2 hours
    B- Replace ‘through’ with ‘throughout’ or ‘across’. Throughout/Across the country means ‘in the whole country’. Through – moving in one side and out of the other side. Ex- Unable to find the house keys, she entered through a window
    C – ‘With a view to’ is always followed by a gerund (v+ing), hence the sentence should be ‘With a view to enhancing the spectrum’
    D-  ‘To’ is redundant. Consider the following example:
    He went to London.
    He went abroad/upstairs.
    In the second case ‘abroad’ and ‘upstairs’ act as adverb of place and we do not use ‘to’ before them.

  8. A. Nalanda University was found in 7th Century BC and flourished under the patronage Of Gupta empire and later under Harsha, the Emperor of Kannauj during 5th and 6th century.
    B. I spoke to my sister in Chandigarh, who told me that she won the Best Player award in the bilateral series against Australia.
    C. The agreement between India and Sri Lanka on establishing a Joint Working Group on fisheries is a small step forward in resolving the dispute between fishermen of both countries
    D. The medical team deserves receiving the award for its exceptional work in sub-Saharan Africa where it treated a number of small children and pregnant women
    E. The Sarpanch of the village was astonished after knowing that the gentries of the village were not invited to the marriage party of his nephew.
    Answer – C
    Explanation :
    A – Three forms of Find (to search) – Find found found. Three forms of Found (establish an institution or organization) –  found founded founded. Sentence is in passive voice, so use 3rd form of verb after ‘was’. Ex – AAP was founded in 2010 by Kejriwal.
    B – When two actions are indicated in the past tense, the earlier action should be denoted in the past perfect tense. So it should be ‘had won’.
    D-  Verb ‘deserve’ is always followed by ‘to+infinitve’. Infinitive is the simplest form of verb. India deserved to win (infinitve). Hence the sentence should be – Medical team deserves to receive ………..
    E- Gentry: the class of people next below the nobility in position and birth. It is a collective noun and is used as both singular and plural. ‘Gentries’ as a word does not exist.

  9. A. With a view to bringing the identity closer to the cultural heritage of the country as also for showcasing its scientific advances, a new series of notes in a new design is being launched
    B. The Prime Minister has not only promised to improve the condition of Dalits and the poor but also the current situation of farmers in different parts of India
    C. I promised my mother that I will come back home from the Business Trip in Sweden, alongwith my wife as soon as my friend will arrive to Sweden from his work trip in the USA
    D. As critics of demonetisation have argued, it has led to a massive reduction in production, particularly in the unorganised sector accounting at 90% of employment and over half of domestic output
    E. During the last couple of years, animation has become a boom business fueled by the ever-increasing demand of the entertainment industry.
    Answer – A
    Explanation :
    B – ‘Not only’ should come after ‘promised’. ‘Not only…..but also’ is a conjunction which joins two sentences. The common part needs to be taken out of both before using the conjunction. See the following –
    I.I have promised my mother + I will fulfil my promise= I have not only promised my mother but also will fulfil it.
    II.I have promised my mother+ I have promised my father = I have promised not only my mother but also my father.
    C – Whenever we have two interrelated phrases in future tense, then the condition on which one phrase depends should be in simple present tense. Correct sentence should be – I will come back (future tense), when my friend arrives (simple present). ‘When my friend arrives’ is the condition on which coming back depends.
    D – ‘At’ is wrongly used here, it must be substituted with ‘for’, hence it should be ‘accounting for’.
    E – We need an adjective here for the noun ‘business’,  the word is ‘booming’ – increasing or expanding vigorously.

  10. A. Many small land owning farmers and farming households and weavers are descending into poverty due to lack of perceived income earning opportunities in relatively well performed states in India.
    B. Developed countries have committed to removing export subsidies immediately, except for a handful of agriculture products, and developing countries will do so by 2018
    C. To ensure an effective transition from hard-labour jobs in the fields for jobs related to the increased use of mechanisation, the governments have to set the right policies and incentives.
    D. China is getting old at a time when its entrepreneurial class is still in the early innings of spreading their wings.
    E. China’s public sector balance sheet is one of the more indebted in the emerging markets and likely more than Brazil, always one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the big four emerging markets.
    Answer – B
    Explanation :
    A – ‘Well performed state’ does not amount to any meaning. We need an adjective for the noun ‘states’, it should be ‘well performing states’.
    C – makes incorrect use of preposition. ‘Transition towards something’ is the correct usage. The correct statement therefore is ‘To ensure an effective transition from hard-labour jobs in the fields towards jobs related…’
    D-  the word ‘entrepreneurial class’ has been used as a collective noun which can be treated as singular. Hence ‘Spreading its wings’ needs to be used in place of ‘spreading their wings’.
    E – China’s public sector balance sheet is being compared to the public sector balance sheet of Brazil. The above statement is incorrect as it expresses comparison between the balance sheet of China and Brazil as a country (Comparison error). The correct statement should be, ‘China’s public sector balance sheet is one of the more indebted in the emerging markets and likely more than that of Brazil’…
    Sentence B is correct as the phrase ‘committed to’ is always followed by a Gerund (Verb + ing). Ex- At Affairscloud, we are committed to helping (not help) the students in the best possible way.