16. Supplementary Worked Examples by Category

The pairs below add two further worked examples to each of the twelve categories from Section 3, for candidates who want additional repetition on a specific category flagged as weak by the diagnostic in Section 11 or by mock-test review.

Subject-Verb Agreement

1. (A) A team of investigators / (B) were sent / (C) to inspect the flooded exam centre. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), should be "was sent," since "team" here acts as a single unit.
2. (A) Politics / (B) has always fascinated / (C) the district magistrate's youngest son. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "politics," though ending in "-s," is treated as a singular uncountable subject.

Tense Consistency 3. (A) By next year, / (B) the board will have released / (C) three separate notifications for this post. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; the future perfect correctly frames an action expected to be complete before a future point. 4. (A) He always double-checks his OMR sheet / (B) before he will submit / (C) it to the invigilator. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), should be "before he submits," since the present simple, not "will submit," is used in a time clause referring to a habitual future action.

Pronoun Case and Agreement 5. (A) The prize was shared equally / (B) between Rekha and I, / (C) the joint winners of the quiz. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), should be "between Rekha and me." 6. (A) Everybody on the panel / (B) gave their honest opinion / (C) about the candidate's performance. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), strict formal usage expects "his or her honest opinion," matching the singular "everybody."

Prepositions 7. (A) She is grateful / (B) to her mentor / (C) of his constant guidance during the preparation. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "grateful for his constant guidance." 8. (A) The two departments finally agreed / (B) on a revised timeline / (C) for completing the audit. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "agreed on" is correctly used here.

Articles 9. (A) He wants to pursue / (B) a MBA / (C) after completing his graduation. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), should be "an MBA," since "MBA" begins with a vowel sound when spoken aloud. 10. (A) The Ganga / (B) is considered / (C) sacred river by millions of devotees. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "a sacred river."

Parallelism 11. (A) The report was praised for being / (B) concise, accurate, / (C) and it was written clearly. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "and clear," matching the two preceding adjectives. 12. (A) She enjoys reading novels, / (B) solving puzzles, / (C) and to travel during the holidays. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "and travelling," matching the two preceding gerunds.

Redundancy 13. (A) The advance planning / (B) for next year's recruitment drive / (C) has already begun. / (D) No error — Answer: (A), "advance planning" is redundant; should be simply "planning." 14. (A) He gave a brief summary / (B) of the entire report / (C) in under two minutes. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "brief summary," though a commonly flagged redundant pair, is used here strictly enough to be defensible — included as a reminder to check the immediate context rather than blacklisting a phrase mechanically.

Comparison Structure 15. (A) Of all the candidates interviewed, / (B) he was clearly / (C) the more confident. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "the most confident," since more than two candidates were interviewed. 16. (A) This year's paper was / (B) as difficult, if not more difficult, / (C) as last year's paper. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "than last year's paper," correctly closing the "if not more difficult than" comparison.

Conjunction Pairing 17. (A) He was not only late / (B) but also / (C) unprepared for the group discussion. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "not only...but also" correctly joins two parallel adjectives. 18. (A) Either the file / (B) or the supporting documents / (C) has gone missing from the record room. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "have gone missing," agreeing with the nearer plural subject "documents."

Modifier Placement 19. (A) Checked thoroughly by two officers, / (B) the file / (C) was finally cleared for processing. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; the opening past-participial phrase correctly attaches to "the file," which genuinely was checked. 20. (A) Scanning the notice board anxiously, / (B) her roll number / (C) finally appeared on the shortlist. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), dangling modifier; "her roll number" cannot scan a notice board — should be restructured, e.g., "...she finally found her roll number on the shortlist."

Countable/Uncountable Mismatches 21. (A) He has very / (B) few knowledge / (C) of the current syllabus changes. / (D) No error — Answer: (B), should be "little knowledge," since "knowledge" is uncountable. 22. (A) There is / (B) a great deal of / (C) confusions regarding the revised eligibility criteria. / (D) No error — Answer: (C), should be "confusion," an uncountable noun here.

Confusable Word Pairs 23. (A) The council / (B) will formally / (C) announce the results next Monday. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "council" (a governing body) and "formally" (in an official manner) are both correctly used. 24. (A) He felt a sense of / (B) moral obligation / (C) to report the irregularity to the higher authorities. / (D) No error — Answer: (D) No error; "moral" (concerning right and wrong) is correctly used, not to be confused with "morale."