NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 1 of 150

Correct — B, 'habitual to drive a car'. 'Habitual' is an adjective for the thing that is done again and again — a habitual gesture, habitual lateness — and it is never completed by a to-infinitive. The person who does the thing is 'in the habit of' doing it or 'accustomed to' doing it, so the segment has to read 'was in the habit of driving a car': 'My friend was in the habit of driving a car at very high speed.'

• (a)My friend was — Error-free — a singular subject with the matching past form of 'be'.
• (c)at very high speed. — Error-free — 'at high speed' is the standard adverbial phrase, and 'very' modifies 'high' without any trouble.
• (d)No error. — The second segment cannot stand as printed, so the sentence does carry a mistake.

'Habitual' describes acts and practices; the person who performs them is said to be in the habit of doing something, or accustomed to it.

The item leans on a phrase that feels natural in Indian English speech. Once the correction is made a second trap opens inside it — the 'to' of 'accustomed to' and the 'of' of 'in the habit of' are prepositions, so what follows is an -ing form and never a bare infinitive. Both 'was in the habit of driving' and 'was accustomed to driving' repair the sentence; 'was habituated to drive' does not.

• 'Habitual' sits before a noun naming the repeated thing or the person defined by it — habitual absence, a habitual latecomer — but it takes no to-infinitive.
• 'In the habit of' and 'accustomed to' are both followed by an -ing form.
• 'Habituated to' behaves the same way — habituated to working late.

• Accepting 'habitual to' because it is common in speech.
• Writing 'in the habit of drive' after making the first correction.

Asked as an error-spotting item — name the segment that carries the mistake, or mark 'No error.'

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which segment carries the error — (a) She is habitual / (b) of getting up / (c) at five in the morning. / (d) No error

  • (a)She is habitual
  • (b)of getting up
  • (c)at five in the morning.
  • (d)No error

  Answer(a) She is habitual — a person is in the habit of doing something, so it should read 'She is in the habit of getting up at five in the morning.'

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Fill the blank — He is accustomed ________ long hours.

  • (a)to work
  • (b)to working
  • (c)for working
  • (d)with work

  Answer(b) to working — the 'to' of 'accustomed to' is a preposition, so an -ing form follows.