Test: Sentence Correction- 1 - GMAT MCQ

To answer this question, you first have to realize that the basic structure of this sentence is fairly simple. The main verb of the sentence is “grown”. What is grown? A flower is grown, not its derivative. Choices A, B, C and D all imply that it is a derivative or a powder which is grown out West and not the flower. This is a clear flaw in logic. The only answer choice that has the correct subject is Choice E.

This question is quite tricky. It involves parallel structure. You have to look carefully to figure out what form the comparison takes. The comparison is not one of similarity, it is one of equality. Saying x is y is quite different from saying x is like y or x is similar to y. Choices B, C and E all change the fundamental underlying concept of the sentence. Choice D disrupts the parallel structure. The parallel structure is “trying to mimic” and “attempting to sing”. Choice A is the correct answer.

This question has to do with parallel structure. Something causes officials to plan, build and offer. Choices A and C disrupt parallel structure by using an “ing” form inconsistently. Choices D and E are incorrect as you cannot cause someone to evacuation route planning or to a planning. Cause should be followed by the infinitive. Choice B is the correct answer.

This is a very easy question because the only mistakes you have to correct are mistakes in subject/verb agreement and subject/pronoun agreement. The subject is the sting. So you want the correct verb form to go with the singular, sting. That leaves you with C, D and E as possible choices because they say the sting ˇC is rarely dangerous. Another mistake you have to correct is a subject/pronoun agreement mistake. The venom belongs to the sting. Therefore, you would use ‘its’ before venom because sting is singular. That leaves you with choices D and E. Choice E makes another mistake by saying they cause red welts to appear. The scorpions don’t cause the red welts to appear, the sting of the scorpions does. Therefore the singular ‘it’ needs to be used. Choice D is the correct answer.

This sentence involves parallel structure. What did the earthquake do? It destroyed and led. These are actives verbs rather than the passive constructions in A and B. C also does not provide parallel structure. D is wordy and uses the wrong tense. The past perfect should be used as the city had become a disaster zone before people came to believe this. “The belief of the city as if it were” is also non-idiomatic. Choice E is the correct answer.

This question has to do with dangling modifiers. There is no subject in the first phrase, the part before the first comma. Therefore the subject of the verb in that phrase must come directly after the comma. What is the verb in the phrase?
Offering is the verb. Who or what does the offering? Karate offers. Therefore karate is the subject and must come directly after the first comma. The only choice which offers this is A.

The first issue you need to be aware of is pronoun reference. It should be employees’ legal right, not employers’. Therefore, you can eliminate A and D. The singular “an employee” does not go together with the plural “their”. Option B does not have  agreement between the plural “employees” and the singular “he”. Option E has an unclear pronoun, “they”, at the end of the option. It is not clear whether this word refers to the employees or the employers. Only option C is correct.

This question has to do with ambiguity arising from a lack of pronouns and improper word order. Choices C, D and E all imply that tourists are the ones who were riddled with bullets, shattered by bombs and hidden in alleys. This is a case of dangling modifiers. Choice A implies that the buildings may have been the ones traveling to more well-known memorial museums. Choice B uses the pronoun “who”. This correctly connects all the parts of the sentence. Choice B is the correct answer.

Option A is incorrect as it is unclear to what “which” is referring. It should refer to organizing rallies but the placement means it is referring to the democratic principles. B is incorrect as the subject “Rallies” does not agree with the verb “is”. Option C states that organizing rallies is beginning to take shape. The democratic principles are beginning to take shape. Choice D has an ambiguity resulting from the pronoun ‘they’. It is unclear to whom ‘they’ is referring. Choice E is the correct answer.

This question has to do with parallel structure. You have to have a continuity of verb tenses and structures. Because you say ‘five x had’, then you have to follow it by saying, ‘but only one y had’. The only two choices that even have a verb in them are D and E. Choice D uses a different verb tense, the simple past. Choice E is the correct answer.

Eliminate A and B on the grounds of a dangling modifier. New Jersey must come after the first comma in options A and B but it does not. “No such one” in option C is non-idiomatic. There is a lack of agreement in Option E between “taxes” and “has”. D is correct.

This question has to do with efficiency of language. What follows the comma is going to give you some peripheral information about the work. You don’t need to precede it by any unnecessary words or phrases such as ‘for’ or ‘as’. D changes the meaning by its use of ‘a paradigm’ rather then ‘the paradigm’. ‘A paradigm’ implies that there were others. The other options are wordier than B. Choice B is the correct answer.

Choice C has an incorrect idiom: while as. Choices A, C, D & E have passive constructions in the last part of the options. A also unnecessarily has ‘the’ before ‘energy costs’. E eliminates ‘energy’. This word is needed or the meaning of the sentence would be altered. Choice B is the correct answer.

The word ‘interval’ is critical in this sentence. You might want to ask yourself why use the word ‘between’ at all? You need the word because of the word ‘interval’. ‘Interval’ implies that something is happening. That something has two parts to it. ‘Interval between’ is the correct idiomatic expression. A is incorrect because it uses the verb form ‘recessing’, which is not connected to a recession in the economy. This type of recession is what the sentence is discussing. Choice C is the best answer.

The part of the sentence you cannot change includes the fact that someone ordered another person or group of people. The correct following structure in this type of sentence is the infinitive. Only E provides this.

This is a very straight forward question of singular or plural and of usage of the words ‘each’ and ‘every’. When you use the word each, you always use the singular, even if you are referring to multiple elements. You would say, for example: each boy in the class is wearing a sweater. Despite the fact that you are referring to multiple boys, you still use the singular. Therefore choices D and E are incorrect. Choice B could be correct if it were: ‘all the paintings tiny etched landscapes’. Choice C uses ‘all’ with the singular ‘its’. This is also wrong. Choice A is the correct answer.

The main thing you have to determine in this sentence is whether to use ‘like’ or ‘as’. Use ‘like’ to compare nouns or pronouns. Use ‘as’ to introduce either a clause, which is a group of words with a verb, or a phrase starting with a preposition. The sentence compares hummingbirds to insects. Nouns are being compared so you need ‘like’. The word ‘do’ in option D is unnecessary. B is more economical than D. ‘From one flower to another’ is also the correct expression rather then ‘from one flower to others’. B is correct.

Choices B, C and E are ambiguous as it is not clear who or what has been branded. D is wordy and the phrase ‘for those of them branded’ is not idiomatically correct in this sentence. Choice B is the correct answer.

The correct noun to use is ‘consumption’ rather than the word ‘consuming’. Choice D has a mistake in grammar. You need to use the plural instead of ‘that was required’. Choice E is the correct answer.

Parallel structure demands agreement in verb tenses. The only option using the same tense throughout is C.

• Here the first thing you have to ask yourself is: what did the judge rule? Did he rule on two ping-pong ball manufacturers or on restitution?
• No, the judge ruled that they owed something. That means that A, B and C are the only possible answer choices.
• You have to also maintain an agreement in tenses. The judge ruled that somebody owed something, not owes. That eliminates choice C.
• One difference between choices A and B is the use of different idioms.
• The manufacturers owed restitution for something, not because of something.
• This is the correct idiomatic expression. The use of ‘their’ is B is also ambiguous. Choice A is the correct answer.

A, C and E are wordy. B maintains parallel structure in that you have a subject, ‘revenue’, and a verb, ‘decreased’, followed by the pronoun ‘it’, standing for revenue and another verb ‘might have been expected’. D has a subject, ‘revenue’ and then another subject ‘its rise’ Because of the two different subjects this option does not have parallel structure. Choice B is the correct answer.

You can have an equivalent number but not equivalent people. A and B incorrectly apply ‘equivalent’ directly to the several million Chinese men. In the same way C incorrectly applies ‘equal’ to the men, not to the number of men. It implies that soldiers are equal to something. The correct comparison here is between the number of soldiers and the number of students. Choice D also makes a mistake in reference in that it compares soldiers to the noun ‘enrollment’. Choice E is the correct answer. It compares Chinese soldiers to Indian students.

This sentence is comparative. X does more of A than Y does of B. What is the X? The United States. What is the Y? North Korea. The simplest structure of an English sentence is to start with the subject and the verb. D & E start in this fashion. A and C are passive. The use of ‘they’ in B is incorrect as it is unclear to what ‘they’ refers. Choice D has a mistake in parallel structure. It uses spends/spending. Choice E is the correct answer.

Choices A, B and E all imply that humans should be struck by vehicles, not that they are or will be. Should implies a sense of moral purpose, which is clearly not the right thing to say here. It is tantamount to saying that if too few people are hit by vehicles, then extra humans will be hit. That leaves us with choices C and D. Choice C disrupts the parallel structure necessary to make the rest of the sentence fit. D has the correct parallel structure: Every three minutes something happens and each minute something else happens. C also implies that it is the same human being that is struck every three minutes. Only choice D doesn’t use the word should and maintains correct parallel structure. Choice D is the correct answer.

The sentence as written is incorrect as it places ‘both’ too far from the parts of the sentence to which it refers. B corrects this error. C unnecessarily repeats the subject using the pronoun ‘it’. It also does not have parallel structure in that it uses ‘work’ and ‘working’. D and E repeat the problem with the placement of ‘both’. D is not parallel in that it uses ‘working’ and ‘are working’. E implies that there are only two adult entertainers. B is correct.

When used as an intensifier ‘so’ is applied to adjectives while the intensifier ‘such’ is applied to an adjective and a noun. For example, you can say ‘such a hot day’ or ‘the day was so hot’. B is therefore incorrect as it does not fit this pattern. The correct adjective is addictive not addicting as used in C. D is not a complete sentence. E changes the meaning. The correct option, A, emphasizes that coffee is so addictive. E loses this emphasis.

The first thing you want to look at in this sentence is parallel structure. Because you say in the beginning ‘raised in a family’, you have to maintain the singular form of family. That eliminates choices C and E as possible answers. Also, the parallel structure carries over to prepositions. In the beginning, it says ‘raised in a family of x than in a family of y’. You have to maintain that structure of ‘in a family’. That leaves you with two possible choices: A and D. A uses the word ‘where’, which is incorrect. ‘Where’ refers to locations. The placement of ‘only’ in A and E is incorrect. It implies that the only thing this parent does is to care for a child. Choice D is the correct answer.

There are two possible constructions after ‘require’ One is ‘someone requires someone else to do something’. The other uses the subjunctive. For example, ‘I require that you be on time’. The subjunctive is always introduced by ‘that’. Choice A does not fit the correct subjunctive pattern as it uses ‘should’, instead of just the infinitive of the verb without ‘to’. B is grammatically correct but it is passive. C is passive and uses ‘retaining’ instead of ‘retention’. D incorrectly implies that there is only one employee. E is also grammatically correct and is shorter and simpler than B and is therefore the correct answer. It is active rather than the passive B.

This sentence clearly has to do with tense agreement. You can reduce the sentence down to the simple form: A woman was guided in x and y. Choice E uses different tenses. The use of ‘by’ in the part of the sentence which cannot be changed means that the verb before ‘by’ will be in the passive. E is active and changes the meaning by saying that she guided herself, rather then being guided by a sense of courage. ‘And’ in options A and C is more economical than ‘as well as’ in the other options. The use of ‘also’ in B is unnecessary. C is wordy. You could eliminate ‘and that she was’. D repeats this error. A is correct.