NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q49: The training programme was extended for a

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2016 GAT Q49?

D. Correct — D, NO IMPROVEMENT. 'A month' is a length of time, and English states how much extra time something has been given with 'for', so 'The training programme was extended for a month' is already correct.

NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 49 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

The training programme was extended for a month.

(a)from
(b)until
(c)since
(d)NO IMPROVEMENT

Answer

Why

Correct — D, NO IMPROVEMENT. 'A month' is a length of time, and English states how much extra time something has been given with 'for', so 'The training programme was extended for a month' is already correct.

Why the others are wrong

(a)from — 'From' introduces the point at which something starts and normally expects a matching end point, so 'extended from a month' leaves the phrase incomplete.
(b)until — 'Until' must be followed by the moment at which something stops, such as 'until March' or 'until the results are out', not by a span of time.
(c)since — 'Since' names the starting point of a period that runs up to the present and goes with perfect tenses, not with a plain past passive about a stretch of added time.

Concept

Duration takes 'for'; a point in time takes 'until', 'since' or 'from'.

The single question worth asking is whether 'a month' names a stretch or a moment. It names a stretch, so 'for' is the only preposition of the four that can govern it, and the sentence needs no change. This is the second item in this section whose answer is that nothing is wrong, which is a deliberate feature of the paper — a candidate who assumes every underlined phrase must contain a fault will lose marks that were free.

Key facts

'For' answers the question 'how long', while 'until' answers 'up to what moment'.
'Extend by' is also possible when the addition is measured against an earlier length, as in 'the deadline was extended by a week'.

Study next

Prepositions that mark duration and prepositions that mark a point in timeVerbs of lengthening — extend, prolong, postpone — and the prepositions each prefersSentence-improvement items whose correct answer is that no change is needed

Common traps

Changing a correct preposition because the phrase has been underlined.
Putting 'until' or 'since' in front of a length of time.

Asked as a short sentence-improvement item on time prepositions, with three substitutions that each demand a point in time the sentence does not offer.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — The library will remain closed for Wednesday.
- (a)until
- (b)since
- (c)from
- (d)No improvement
Answer(a) until — 'Wednesday' is a point in time, so it takes 'until'.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — The strike continued since nine days.
- (a)for
- (b)until
- (c)from
- (d)No improvement
Answer(a) for — 'nine days' is a length of time and takes 'for'.