EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 7 of 120

Correct — A, (a) ‘Given the complex of the problem’. The fault is a word-form error: the sentence needs the abstract noun ‘complexity’ and prints ‘complex’. ‘Complex’ does exist as a noun, which is what makes the slip easy to read past. As a noun it means a group of connected buildings — a sports complex, a housing complex — or a related set of things taken together, or, from psychology, a fixed emotional pattern such as an inferiority complex. What it never means is the quality of being complicated. That quality noun is ‘complexity’, formed the way English regularly builds abstract nouns from adjectives ending in a consonant cluster: scarce and scarcity, able and ability, sincere and sincerity, curious and curiosity. So the phrase ‘the complex of the problem’ collapses. Read it as the buildings sense and it is absurd; read it as the quality sense and the word cannot carry it. The repair is one letter-string: ‘Given the complexity of the problem, the committee is not expected to arrive at a decision any time soon.’ The frame around it is sound and should be cleared deliberately rather than assumed. ‘Given’ here is a preposition meaning taking into account, and it introduces a noun phrase — given the circumstances, given his age, given the complexity of the problem. It is not a dangling participle and needs no subject of its own. Once (a) is repaired the sentence is complete, idiomatic English, which confirms that the fault was in (a) and nowhere else.

• (b)the committee is not expected — ‘the committee is not expected’ is correct. ‘Committee’ is a collective noun treated as a single body here, so the singular ‘is’ agrees with it — the usage a candidate is expected to accept in this kind of sentence, where the committee acts as one unit rather than as individuals pulling in different directions. The passive ‘is not expected’ is properly formed and the negative belongs to the sentence being tested; it is not a hint that the question is asking something negative.
• (c)to arrive at a decision any time soon. — ‘to arrive at a decision any time soon.’ is correct on both counts that could be doubted. ‘Arrive at’ is the standard collocation for reaching an outcome by a process of thought — arrive at a decision, at a conclusion, at an estimate — as against ‘arrive in’ or ‘arrive at’ a place. And ‘any time soon’ is ordinary idiomatic English in a negative or interrogative frame; it would be wrong only in a plain affirmative, where the form is ‘some time soon’.
• (d)No error — ‘No error’ cannot stand, because ‘the complex of the problem’ has no available reading. The temptation to mark (d) comes from the sentence sounding fluent when skimmed — the rhythm of the phrase is exactly that of ‘given the complexity of the problem’, and the eye supplies the missing syllables. That is precisely the reader-completion effect these items are built to catch, and it is a reason to read each underlined segment word by word rather than for sense.

Word-form errors are one of the standing categories in error-spotting, and they come in three shapes worth telling apart. The first is a missing derivation, as here: an adjective is used where the language has a distinct abstract noun. Complex and complexity, scarce and scarcity, curious and curiosity, anxious and anxiety, brief and brevity, poor and poverty. A candidate who reads for meaning will not notice, because the adjective carries the right idea; only reading for form catches it. The second is a pair of related words that have drifted apart in sense. Economic and economical, historic and historical, industrial and industrious, principal and principle, effective and efficient, credible and credulous. Here both words exist and both are nouns or both adjectives, so the test is meaning, not form. The third is a noun that also exists in another sense entirely, which is what gives this item its cover. ‘Complex’ is a real noun; it is simply the wrong one. Reading the segment and asking ‘which sense of this word is being used, and does it exist ?’ is the discipline that separates a form error from a genuine ‘no error’.

Q7 is the second item of the spotting-errors set that begins at Q6, and it prints only its sentence — the Directions block governing all five stands above Q6. Its three underlined segments are labelled (a), (b) and (c), and those letters are simultaneously the answer choices, with (d) as ‘No error’. This item is a good illustration of why the segments have to be audited one at a time. The sentence carries a plausible decoy in each of the other two stretches: a collective noun in (b), which invites a hunt for a subject–verb agreement problem, and two collocations in (c) that a candidate may not be sure about. A reader who is unsure about ‘any time soon’ and does not check ‘complex’ closely will mark (c) on a hunch. The paper is testing whether you can hold a suspicion open, test the next segment, and then choose between them on a stated rule rather than on the order in which doubts arrived.

• The abstract noun for the adjective ‘complex’ is ‘complexity’; the noun ‘complex’ means a group of buildings, a related set of things, or a fixed emotional pattern such as an inferiority complex.
• ‘Given’ used before a noun phrase — given the circumstances, given his age — is a preposition meaning taking into account, and needs no subject, so segment (a)’s opening frame is not a dangling participle.
• ‘Arrive at’ is the collocation for reaching a decision, a conclusion or an estimate; ‘arrive in’ and ‘arrive at’ are for places.
• ‘Any time soon’ is idiomatic in negative and interrogative sentences; the affirmative equivalent is ‘some time soon’.
• The word ‘not’ in segment (b) belongs to the sentence under test and has nothing to do with the question being a negative one.

• Reading for meaning instead of for form. ‘The complex of the problem’ conveys the intended sense perfectly well and is still not English.
• Assuming a word must be right because it exists. ‘Complex’ is a noun, but not a noun that means complicatedness.
• Marking a segment because you are unsure of an idiom in it. Uncertainty about ‘any time soon’ is not evidence against segment (c); test the other segments before settling.
• Treating the collective noun in segment (b) as an automatic agreement error. A committee acting as one body takes a singular verb.

Word-form errors recur through the EO/AO spotting-errors set because they survive a fluent reading, which is exactly what the format is designed to punish. The examiner keeps the sentences short and non-technical and hides the fault behind a frame that sounds formal — ‘given the … of the problem’, ‘in view of the … of the matter’ — so that the rhythm of the phrase carries the reader past the missing derivation. The reliable counter is to read each underlined segment as words rather than as a phrase, and to ask of any noun whether the sense being used actually exists.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Identify the segment containing the error, or mark (d) if there is none : In view of the scarce of skilled staff (a) | the department has decided (b) | to postpone the new scheme. (c) | No error (d)

  • (a)In view of the scarce of skilled staff
  • (b)the department has decided
  • (c)to postpone the new scheme.
  • (d)No error

  Answer(a) In view of the scarce of skilled staff — the frame ‘in view of the … of’ needs an abstract noun, and the noun formed from the adjective ‘scarce’ is ‘scarcity’. Segment (b) is a correct present perfect with a collective subject and segment (c) is a well-formed infinitive complement of ‘decided’.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Identify the segment containing the error, or mark (d) if there is none : The auditor made an economical case (a) | for merging the two offices (b) | before the end of the year. (c) | No error (d)

  • (a)The auditor made an economical case
  • (b)for merging the two offices
  • (c)before the end of the year.
  • (d)No error

  Answer(a) The auditor made an economical case — ‘economical’ means thrifty or sparing in use; the word needed for an argument about the economy or about costs and benefits is ‘economic’. Both other segments are correctly formed, ‘for’ taking the gerund and ‘before the end of the year’ being an ordinary time adjunct.