1. Raj's apartment was three floors underneath the Subramanian residence. 2. There was little space below the tin roof and the scaffolding for the squirrel to hide in. 3. Inside the box was the secret he had been searching for all his life. Select the answer using the codes given below :
- (a)3 only
- (b)1 and 2
- (c)2 and 3
- (d)None of the above
Answer
Why
Correct — A, (a) 3 only.
The three underlined words are 'underneath' in sentence 1, 'below' in sentence 2 and 'Inside' in sentence 3.
Sentence 3 is correct and is the easiest to settle. 'Inside the box was the secret he had been searching for all his life' places a thing within an enclosure, which is precisely what 'inside' does. The sentence is also an inversion - the prepositional phrase leads and the verb precedes the subject - but that is a normal literary word order in English and does not affect the preposition.
Sentence 1 is not correct. 'Underneath' means directly beneath, and it usually carries a sense of being covered, hidden or in contact with what is above - underneath the carpet, underneath his coat, underneath the bonnet of a car. It is not the word English uses for measured vertical separation between the levels of a building. There the preposition is 'below', and it takes the measure phrase naturally: three floors below, two floors below, several floors below. 'Three floors underneath the Subramanian residence' asks 'underneath' to do a job - to be quantified by a number of storeys - that the word does not take.
Sentence 2 is not correct either, and its fault lies in what follows the preposition. The sentence describes a gap with two boundaries - a tin roof on one side and scaffolding on the other - and then joins them with 'and'. A space defined by two things on either side of it is a space between them: 'little space between the tin roof and the scaffolding'. Read with 'below', the sentence says there was little space beneath both the roof and the scaffolding, which is not the picture the rest of the sentence draws.
One correct sentence, and it is the third, which is option (a).
Why the others are wrong
- (b)1 and 2 — This option requires sentences 1 and 2 to be correct and drops the one sentence in the item that is plainly right. Both of its choices fail on separate grounds - 'underneath' cannot take a measure of storeys, and 'below' cannot introduce the two boundaries of a gap joined by 'and' - so the option is wrong twice over. It is also the option that a candidate reaches for after deciding that sentence 3 must be a trick because it is short and simple; simplicity is not a fault, and a preposition item will often include one straightforward correct sentence to reward candidates who do not over-read.
- (c)2 and 3 — This option keeps the correct sentence 3 and adds sentence 2, which makes it the near-miss and the one worth explaining carefully. 'Below the tin roof' is unimpeachable English on its own - a roof is above, and a space beneath it is below it. What breaks the sentence is the second boundary: 'below the tin roof and the scaffolding' makes the scaffolding another thing overhead, when the rest of the sentence describes a gap the squirrel might hide in, which has a boundary on each side. Where two limits are named and joined by 'and', English requires 'between'. A candidate who chooses (c) has read the first half of the phrase and stopped.
- (d)None of the above — 'None of the above' is a real answer in this set - the item that opens the set is answered by it - but it is not the answer here, because sentence 3 is correct in every respect. 'Inside the box was the secret ...' uses the right preposition for an enclosure, in a normal inverted construction. Choosing this option usually means the inversion has been read as a fault. It is not one: leading with a prepositional phrase and following it with verb and subject is standard English, and it changes nothing about the preposition being tested.
Concept
The prepositions of vertical position divide by more than direction, and the divisions are worth stating precisely.
Under is the general word for a lower position, with or without contact - under the table, under the bridge, under thirty years of age.
Underneath is more specific: directly beneath, usually with contact or concealment. It suits things covered by what is above them - underneath the carpet, underneath a pile of files - and it resists measurement, which is why 'three floors underneath' fails.
Below means at a lower level, with no implication of contact or cover, and it is the word English uses when levels are being compared or counted - below sea level, below the poverty line, three floors below, the paragraph below.
Beneath is close to under and below and is chiefly literary, with an extra figurative sense of unworthiness - beneath contempt, beneath his dignity.
A second family covers enclosure. In and inside both place something within an enclosure; inside emphasises the interior as against the exterior and is often the choice when the enclosure is a container - inside the box, inside the envelope.
The third point in this item is not about vertical position at all. 'Between' is required whenever two limits are named and the thing described lies in the gap between them. A space with a boundary above and a boundary below is between them, whatever the individual prepositions of each boundary might be.
This is the third item of the preposition set and the second of the paper's three items offering 'None of the above'. The first of the three, which opens the set, is answered by the escape option; this one offers it and does not intend it, which is a fair test of whether a candidate can resist reading a pattern into the set.
The item is also carefully built so that each sentence fails for a different reason. Sentence 1 uses a preposition that cannot take the modifier attached to it - a fault of collocation. Sentence 2 uses a preposition that cannot govern the two objects supplied - a fault of structure. Sentence 3 is simply correct. That spread is typical of the set and rewards a candidate who asks a different question of each sentence rather than applying one test to all three.
A transcription note carried from the printed page: in sentence 2 the underline begins a fraction before the word and runs under the following space, so it reads as covering ' below ' rather than 'below'. Nothing turns on it - the underlined element is the preposition - but it is the kind of detail that can make a scanned paper ambiguous.
Key facts
- 'Underneath' means directly beneath and usually implies contact or concealment - underneath the carpet, underneath his coat - and it does not take a measure of storeys.
- 'Below' is the preposition of comparative level and accepts measurement: three floors below, below sea level, below the poverty line.
- Where a space is bounded by two named things joined by 'and', English requires 'between ... and ...', whatever preposition either boundary would take on its own.
- 'Inside' places a thing within an enclosure and is the natural choice for containers; the inverted order 'Inside the box was the secret ...' is standard English and not a fault.
- The three items in this set that offer 'None of the above' do not all use it - it is the answer on the set's opening item and wrong on this one, so each item must be judged on its own.
Study next
Common traps
- Accepting 'three floors underneath' because 'underneath' is a correct English word; the fault is that it cannot be quantified in storeys.
- Reading only as far as the first boundary in sentence 2, where 'below the tin roof' is perfectly good until the scaffolding is added.
- Treating the inversion in sentence 3 as an error, when a fronted prepositional phrase followed by verb and subject is ordinary English.
- Choosing the escape option because the set's opening item was answered by it, rather than because this item's three sentences are all faulty.
- Applying one test to all three sentences, when each has been built to fail - or pass - for a different reason.
Within a single preposition set EPFO varies both the answer shape and the kind of fault. One item is answered by 'None of the above', the next accepts every sentence, and a third accepts exactly one. The faults themselves range across collocation, government and idiom, so a candidate who has only learned a list of correct pairs will find some sentences whose individual words are all correct and whose combination is not. The productive habit is to ask, of each sentence, what picture it describes and whether the preposition can carry that picture - which catches sentence 2 in this item, where every word is a real English word and the structure will not hold what the sentence means.
Related PYQs
EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q9Which one of the following parts of the sentence, “Don’t ask him how he is because if he starts talking about his health you’ll never get off from him”, has an error?
- (a) Don’t ask him how he is because
- (b) if he starts talking about his health you’ll never
- (c) get off from him
- (d) No error
Answer(c) get off from him
'Get off from him' - an error item on a redundant or wrong particle, the same family of usage faults as a preposition that cannot govern what follows it.
EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q8Which one of the following parts of the sentence, “After a lot of argument I brought him forward to my point of view”, has an error?
- (a) After a lot of argument
- (b) I brought him forward
- (c) to my point of view
- (d) No error
Answer(b) I brought him forward
An error item on 'brought him forward to my point of view', where each word is English and the combination is not, exactly as in sentence 2 here.
EPFO_APFC_2016_Q7Consider the sentence : 'The teacher gave me the book'. 1 2 3 4 5 6 where the words are numbered for convenience of reference. Consider also the insertion of a single word 'only' into this sentence to indicate a desired emphasis. Where shall this word be inserted if the emphasis is to be (i) On the recipient (ii) On the uniqueness of the item given (iii) On the giver respectively (only one at a time) ?
- (a) (i) Between 3-4; (ii) After 6; (iii) Between 2-3
- (b) (i) Between 3-4; (ii) Between 5-6; (iii) Before 1
- (c) (i) Between 4-5; (ii) Between 3-4; (iii) After 1
- (d) (i) Between 2-3; (ii) Between 4-5; (iii) Between 1-2
Answer(b) (i) Between 3-4; (ii) Between 5-6; (iii) Before 1
Tests where a word may be inserted into a numbered sentence, requiring structural rather than lexical judgement.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
In which one of the following sentences is the preposition used correctly ?
- (a)The strong room is two floors underneath the cash counter
- (b)There was no room below the beam and the false ceiling
- (c)Inside the sealed cover were the marks of every candidate
- (d)He kept the register below his shirt to protect it from the rain
Answer(c) Inside the sealed cover were the marks of every candidate - 'inside' is the preposition for an enclosure. (a) needs 'below', which takes a measure of storeys; (b) names two boundaries and needs 'between ... and ...'; and (d) describes concealment under clothing, which takes 'underneath'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which preposition correctly completes the sentence : 'A narrow passage runs ______ the two godowns' ?
- (a)below
- (b)underneath
- (c)between
- (d)beneath
Answer(c) between - the passage lies in the gap bounded by the two godowns, and two named limits take 'between'. The other three describe a position lower than something above, which is not what the sentence pictures.