Sentence Correction Home Exercise 02, DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5:

 DIRECTIONS for questions 1 to 5:  each of the following questions consists of a sentence, with some parts of it underlined, which could be erroneous. From among the choices given, you to select an answer the is the best possible replacement for the underlined part of the key sentence. While choosing the right answer, please pay particular attention to the syntax, idiom, usage and economy of words being used.

1.       The relationship between corpulence and disease remain controversial, although statistics clearly associate a reduced life expectancy with chronic obesity.

A.      Remain controversial, although statistics clearly associate a reduced life expectancy with

B.      Remain controversial, although statistics clearly associates a reduced life expectancy with

C.      Remain controversial, although statistics clearly associates reduced life expectancy to

D.      Remains controversial , although statistics clearly associate a reduced  life expectancy with

2.       New theories propose that catastrophic impacts of asteroids and comets may have caused reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, the onset of ice ages, splitting apart continent 80 million years ago, and great volcanic eruptions.

A.      Splitting apart continents   

B.       The splitting apart of continents

C.      Split apart continents

D.      Continents split apart

3.       Newcomers of southern California are surprised to discover that, in spite of the temperate climate, heating bills are as high as, or higher than, those in most Midwestern or eastern cities.

A.      As high as, or higher than, those in

B.      As high , or higher than,

C.      As high as, or higher than,

D.      At least as high as those in

4.       In one of the most stunning reversals in the history of marketing, Coca-Cola in July, 1985 yielded to thousands of rate consumers demanding that it should bring back the original coke formula.

A.      Demanding that it should

B.      Demanding it to

C.      And heir demand to

D.      Who demanded that it

5.       In presenting his modus Vivendi proposal, Lansing implied that the American government accepted the German view that armed merchant vessels were warships: however, when the proposal was dropped by the Wilson administration, it seemed to be reverting to the British view on this question.

A.      When the proposal, was dropped by the Wilson administration, it

B.      After it was dropped, the Wilson administration

C.      By dropping the proposal, the Wilson administration

D.      The Wilson administration dropped the proposal when it 

Answer:

1.       D   Subject-verb error. All options containing this mismatch have to be eliminated i.e. options A, B and C Relationship –remains; statistics- associate. Hence option D is the best possible answer.

2.       B     Contains the error of parallelism i.e. uses reversal and onset (which are abstract nouns) with splitting apart (which, in its present avatar, represents a gerund). This anomaly needs to be removed by converting splitting apart into the splitting part of. This is done perfectly well by option B, the correct choice.

3.       D   This sentence suffers from, to some extent, the problem of redundancy which can be easily remedied by replacing as high as, or higher than, those with another, logically equivalent but shorter expression. Option B omits as after high, rendering it grammatically incorrect. Option c omits those, rendering incomplete.

4.       D    Consumers must be complement by a relative pronoun who and demanded would be following by a noun clause introduced with that. Hence [ D]

5.       C     option B changes the meaning by using after. SO is true of option D which uses when. In presenting is complemented by by dropping eliminating the error of parallelism. Hence [ C]