Example of a sentence correction question
Last updated: 13 Oct 2008
In a sentence correction problem you will be given one sentence - only one sentence, even if that sentence seems painfully long - with all or one part of that sentence underlined.
The underlined part of the sentence is the part that must be evaluated. Is it grammatically correct or not? You are given five answer choices below the sentence, and must determine which one of these answer choices should or should not replace the underlined part, making the sentence more grammatical.
Only ONE answer choice can be correct.
The first answer choice, A, is always the same as the original sentence. If there is nothing wrong with the sentence, then the correct answer must be A.
Here is an example of a sentence correction question:
Developing countries have much to lose when one of their neighbors experiences a financial crisis, because their own financial systems are often more fragile, and therefore more susceptible to contagion, than of industrialized states.
- than of
- than those of
- than is true of
- compared to
- compared with
Have a go at answering this and then take a look at the explanation below
Explanation
This is a comparison question which is one of the types of sentence correction questions that we will study later in this tutorial.
To make the sentence grammatical we must compare the financial systems of developing countries with the financial systems of industrialized states.
B does this by using those, which in this case clearly refers to the financial systems of industrialized countries.
A lacks the necessary those.
C might be tempting as an answer choice, but actually compares the financial systems of developing countries with industrialized states, an illogical comparison.
D and E both have awkward and unidiomatic structures: D says more... compared to, and E has more...compared with.
Therefore B is the correct answer.
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