Test: Spotting Errors (March 8) - CAT MCQ

• Specially vs Especially (specially means exclusively for, especially means for a particular purpose); ‘especially’ suits the context better because ‘infertility treatments’ are mentioned as the class of treatments the tourists go for. Options c and d are eliminated.
• ‘The number of foreigners’ is the subject of the sentence. “the number” is always singular, hence ‘has’ is the correct verb.

Hence the correct answer is Option B.

• Choice is compared, hence that of (choice of) is essential. Otherwise, choice and Obama are directly compared making it an error.
• To identify either the similarities or the differences between two things, use "compare to."
• To identify both the similarities and the differences (at the same time), use "compare with." ('Compared with' places the things compared on equal level) India is often compared with China. India is often compared to the US.
• In comparing with something, one finds or discusses both things that are alike and things that are different.

• The shift to the future tense is unnecessary from the present. 'Cannot be represented' as it is a fact.
• It is an error to change which to that, as which introduces a descriptive clause. 
• 'One way or another' is the correct idiom.

The word “felicitate” in the third sentence is used as a verb. But, the word that describes a noun “contacts”, must be an adjective.

The word used must be "felicitated".

The answer is Option C.

 Everyone complimented her for her good work.
The appropriate preposition should have been ‘on’ and not ‘for’. And so, the correct sentence should be:
Everyone complimented her on her good work.
Sometimes prepositions may be used in a sentence though they are not needed, so this is another kind of incorrect sentence that the examinee should be able to identify.

The correct answer is Option C. 

• There are two clauses in this sentence: The tendency to eat late is believed (by nutritionists) to be a factor in putting on weight and (though) it has never been tested properly.
• The first clause can also be correctly constructed as "The tendency to eat late, many nutritionists believe, is a factor in putting on weight." But, this is not among the options.
• "Believed, as a factor" is incorrect.

• There is no error in the original sentence nor does it need any improvement.
• 'features' needs a plural verb 'possess'.
• To establish comparison 'that of' is necessary.

This is a pure subject-verb agreement question. The subject 'nuclear power generation' requires the singular verb 'relies' and 'heavy elements' requires the plural verb 'break'.

• Modifier error if 'it' is retained as the subject, 'it' cannot be 'looking.' Options 1 and 2 are, hence, eliminated.
• Option 4 unnecessarily uses the continuous tense and has a parallelism error.
• When one looks at the path and the fact are parallel. Hence option 3 is the only correct choice.

but he stopped on the way is the mistake. 

The conjunction has been wrongly used. Although is always followed by yet and never by but. The conjunction 'Although ------ yet' is used to express two contrary qualities or actions of a person. 

The correct sentence will be: Although he was late, yet he stopped on the way to have coffee with his friends.