Sentence Improvement — Set 11

Correct Answer: A. The boy who won the competition was felicitated.

'The boy who won the competition was felicitated.' is the correct revision. 'Which' is a relative pronoun used for things, not people. For people, 'who' (subject case) or 'whom' (object case) must be used. Since 'the boy' is the subject of 'won', the subject case 'who' is correct.

Correct Answer: C. I look forward to hearing from you.

'I look forward to hearing from you.' is correct. 'Look forward to' requires the preposition 'to' (not 'for', 'in', or 'about'). After this 'to' (which functions as a preposition, not an infinitive marker), a gerund 'hearing' must follow, not an infinitive 'hear'. Both the correct preposition and gerund form are essential.

Correct Answer: B. He has gone to the market.

'He has gone to the market.' is the correct present perfect form. The past participle of 'go' is 'gone', not 'went' (which is the simple past). 'He have gone' uses a plural auxiliary for the singular subject 'he', and 'has go' lacks a past participle. 'Has + past participle' is the correct present perfect construction.

Correct Answer: B. If I were you, I would not do that.

'If I were you, I would not do that.' is the standard form for hypothetical conditionals. In the second conditional (imaginary situations contrary to fact), 'were' is used for all subjects including 'I' — this is the subjunctive mood. 'If I was' uses indicative mood which is considered incorrect in formal English.

Correct Answer: A. The police were unable to catch the thief.

'The police were unable to catch the thief.' is correct. 'Police' is a plural collective noun that always takes a plural verb in both British and formal English. 'The police was' incorrectly treats 'police' as a singular noun. This rule is consistently tested in SSC, RRB, and UPSC English grammar sections.

Correct Answer: B. She asked me what I was doing.

'She asked me what I was doing.' is the correct indirect speech form. In reported questions with question words ('what', 'where', 'why'), 'that' is not used. The verb follows affirmative word order (subject + verb) not question word order. Options A and C both err with incorrect word order or the addition of 'that'.

Correct Answer: A. No sooner had he arrived than she left.

'No sooner had he arrived than she left.' is correct. 'No sooner' is a negative adverb requiring subject-auxiliary inversion — the auxiliary 'had' must precede the subject 'he'. Additionally, 'no sooner' always pairs with 'than', not 'when'. Both the inversion and the 'than' conjunction are required.

Correct Answer: A. The data are incorrect in this report.

'The data are incorrect in this report.' follows the strict grammatical rule where 'data' (the plural of 'datum') takes a plural verb in formal academic and competitive exam English. 'Data is' is acceptable informally, but 'data are' is the prescribed form for exams. Option C 'data be' is grammatically incorrect.

Correct Answer: A. The manager along with his staff was present.

'The manager along with his staff was present.' is correct. When two nouns are joined by phrases like 'along with', 'as well as', or 'together with', the verb agrees only with the first (main) subject. 'The manager' is singular, so the singular verb 'was' is used. 'Were' in the original incorrectly uses plural agreement.

Correct Answer: A. I enjoy reading books in my free time.

'I enjoy reading books in my free time.' is correct. 'Enjoy' always requires a gerund (verb+ing) and never an infinitive (to + verb). This is a fixed pattern in English grammar — verbs like enjoy, avoid, suggest, recommend, and consider always take the gerund form.