English Language

Sentence Improvement

821 Questions
All Tense and Time Sequence 181 Verb-Governed Prepositions 145 Lexical Confusables 75 Subject-Verb Agreement 59 Modifiers 48 Determiners and Quantifiers 47 Infinitive vs. Gerund 47 Correlative and Paired Conjunctions 35 Conditional Sentences 30 Pronoun Case and Agreement 24 Redundancy 24 Parallel Structure 20 Question Tags 10 Reported Speech 8

Sentence Improvement Questions

Multiple choice

Directions: In this question, a sentence/a part of a sentence is underlined to which alternatives (1), (2) and (3) are given below which may improve the sentence. Choose the correct alternative. If no improvement is needed, your answer is (4).

Because of the long dispute between the husband and the wife, they broke of at last and parted their ways.

  1. off

  2. in

  3. up

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

(3) is the correct answer because it indicates “ending a relationship”.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of the sentence. Below the sentence, three possible substitutions for the underlined part are given. If one of them, i.e. (1), (2) or (3), is better than the underlined part, indicate that as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4), i.e. "No improvement" as your answer.

The teacher said that the Earth was round.

  1. is

  2. has been

  3. has

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

(1) is the correct answer because the sentence represents a universal truth. Therefore, the present tense should be used.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of the sentence. Below the sentence, three possible substitutions for the underlined part are given. If one of them, i.e. (1), (2) or (3), is better than the underlined part, indicate that as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4), i.e. "No improvement" as your answer.

The labourers work from morning to evening.

  1. in

  2. by

  3. for

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

(4) is the correct answer because the given sentence has no error.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of the sentence. Below the sentence, three possible substitutions for the underlined part are given. If one of them, i.e. (1), (2) or (3), is better than the underlined part, indicate that as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4), i.e. "No improvement" as your answer.

My wife sold the old newspapers at fifteen rupees per kilogram.

  1. for

  2. with

  3. by

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

(1) is the correct answer because “for” is used when the price is given.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of the given sentence. Below the sentence are three possible substitutions for the underlined part. Choose the one that is better than the underlined part, otherwise choose option (4), i.e. 'No improvement'.

Many students in Punjab use Hindi besides Punjabi.

  1. beside

  2. side out

  3. by the side of

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

(4) is the correct answer because the given sentence has no error as “besides” means “in addition to”.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of the given sentence. Below the sentence are three possible substitutions for the underlined part. Choose the one that is better than the underlined part, otherwise choose option (4), i.e. 'No improvement'.

Some passengers were fled to London on the last flight instead of Paris due to bad weather.

  1. flown

  2. fly

  3. flew

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

(1) is the correct answer as “flown” is the correct 2nd form of verb and not “fled”.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

The fog lifted, the plane took off.

  1. Having lifted the fog

  2. Lifting the fog

  3. The fog having lifted

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Since, the clause 'the plane took off' is an independent clause, there has to be a dependent clause to make the sentence complete. 'The fog lifted'is an independent clause. So, we have to turn 'The fog lifted' into a subordinate or dependent clause. It can be 'As the fog lifted,' or 'The fog having lifted'.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

He complained of having tortured by the police.

  1. having been tortured

  2. tortured

  3. been tortured

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

'By the police' makes it a sentence in the passive voice with 'the police' as the subject. So, the object case is tortured and complains of 'having been tortured'.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

The sea rough, they abandoned the swim.

  1. Sea being rough

  2. The sea being rough

  3. It being rough

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

'Being' indicates  the current condition of the sea.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

We were all happy at Mr. Sen being awarded the Nobel Prize.

  1. at Mr Sen's being awarded

  2. at Mr Sen awarded

  3. at Mr Sen been awarded

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

 No improvement required.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

Being a rainy day, we had to abandon the match.

  1. Having been a rainy day

  2. It being a rainy day

  3. It been a rainy day

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

There is a  dangling modifier( Being a rainy day) in the sentence, the inclusion of a pronoun 'it'  clarifies what is being modified.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

Hurry lest you should not miss the train.

  1. should miss

  2. should

  3. would not

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Some words like lest, unless, until etc. are not followed by negative sentence.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

Hadn't we cancelled the journey at the last moment, we should all have been killed in the crash.

  1. If we had not cancelled

  2. Had we cancelled

  3. If we had cancelled

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The first clause needs to be a conditional statement, hence, the inclusion of 'if'.

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

No less than 50 students turned up for the presentation.

  1. No fewer

  2. Less

  3. Few

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Few and fewer is used for countable nouns. Less is used for uncountable nouns. Because '50'  is a specific number, we use 'fewer'. 

Multiple choice

Directions: Look at the underlined part of sentence. Below the sentence are given three possible substitutions for the underlined part. If one of the substitutions is better than the underlined part, indicate it as your answer. If none of the substitutions improves the sentence, indicate (4) as your answer.

This time tomorrow I will lie on the beach.

  1. will be lying

  2. will have been lying

  3. will have lied

  4. No improvement needed
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The future continuous tense is used to refer to events that will happen at a particular time in the future, (will + be + verb+ing).