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 best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose one of the others.

The truth but not the followers come to us, in a form that seems strange to us.

  1. The truth but not the followers come to us,

  2. It is not the followers of truth but the truth indeed that comes to us,

  3. It is the truth, not its followers that comes to us,

  4. It is the truth that comes to us and not the followers of truth

  5. What comes to us is the truth, not its followers,

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): Type of error: subject verb agreement

If the sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject. The positive subject 'the truth' is singular and the verb that follows is the plural 'come'.

Explanation for (2): The sentence is unnecessarily verbose.
Justification for (3): If the sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject. Here the verb 'comes' correctly agrees with the positive- singular subject 'the truth'.
Explanation for (4): The sentence unnecessarily and incorrectly changes the conjunction 'and' to 'but'. Explanation for (5): There is an unnecessary shift from active to passive voice.