Multiple choice

Directions: This question presents a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is the best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose any one of the others.

Poecilotheria Nallamalar is a shy but lethal, palm sized ambush predator that preyed on lizards, insects and small snakes injecting them with deadly venom before sucking out their body fluids.

  1. that preyed on lizards, insects and small snakes injecting

  2. which preyed on lizards, insects and small snakes and injected

  3. which preys on lizards, insects and small snakes, injects

  4. that preys on lizards insects and small snakes to inject

  5. that preys on lizards, insects and small snakes injecting
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): The sentence has error of tense. The first part of the sentence is in the present tense, so the latter part should also be in the present tense, 'preys', not 'preyed'.

Explanation for (2): This option does not rectify the error of tense and it also introduces other errors of relative pronoun, conjunction and parallelism. Use of 'which' is incorrect because the sentence talks about a particular creature, and 'which' is a nonrestrictive pronoun. Changing 'injecting' to 'injected' creates the error of parallelism (injected; sucking).

Explanation for (3): This option rectifies the error of tense but introduces other errors of relative pronoun, conjunction and parallelism. Use of 'which' is incorrect because the sentence talks about a particular creature, and 'which' is nonrestrictive pronoun. Changing 'injecting' to 'injects' creates the error of parallelism (injects; sucking). The use of 'and' is redundant.
Explanation for (4): This option rectifies the error of tense but introduces the error of punctuation and parallelism. Comma is required between lizards and insects. Changing 'injecting' to 'to inject' creates the error of parallelism (to inject (infinitive); sucking (gerund)). Explanation for (5): The sentence has error of tense. The first part of the sentence is in the present tense, so the latter part should also be in the present tense, 'preys' not 'preyed'. This option rectifies this error.

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