As soon as / the train arrived / the passengers entered the compartments. / No error.
- (a)As soon as
- (b)the train arrived
- (c)the passengers entered the compartments
- (d)No error
Correct — D, No error. The sentence is sound throughout. 'As soon as' correctly introduces a time clause, 'the train arrived' is the simple past that clause needs, and 'the passengers entered the compartments' is a well-formed main clause in the same tense, so nothing has to be changed.
- (a)As soon as — This is the standard three-word conjunction for one event following another immediately, and it is used here in its normal position at the head of the sentence.
- (b)the train arrived — 'Arrive' is intransitive and needs no object, and the simple past is exactly the tense an 'as soon as' clause takes when the main clause is also in the past.
- (c)the passengers entered the compartments — 'Enter' is transitive and takes its object directly, so no preposition is needed, and the plural subject agrees with the past-tense verb.
A spotting-errors item whose answer is the fourth option, testing whether a student can accept a clean sentence instead of hunting for a fault.
Candidates often mark a segment because a comma seems to be missing before the main clause. Punctuation is not what these items test, and the segments as printed carry no grammatical fault.
- 'As soon as', 'the moment' and 'no sooner ... than' all mark immediate sequence.
- 'Enter' takes a direct object, so 'entered into the compartments' would have been the error.
- Assuming every spotting-errors item must contain a mistake.
Asked as a spotting-errors item that is deliberately clean, so the fourth option is the key.
Turbidity current is a fast-moving current (a) that sweeps down submarine canyons, (b) carrying sand and mud into the deep sea (c). No error (d)
- (a) Turbidity current is a fast-moving current
- (b) that sweeps down submarine canyons,
- (c) carrying sand and mud into the deep sea
- (d) No error
Answer(d) No error
The same testing point in a different paper — a spotting-errors sentence in which all three segments are sound and the fourth option is the key, which is how the section keeps candidates from marking a segment on instinct.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which segment contains the error — Hardly had he sat down / when / the phone rang. / No error.
- (a)Hardly had he sat down
- (b)when
- (c)the phone rang
- (d)No error
Answer(d) No error — 'hardly ... when' with inversion after 'hardly' is correct.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which segment contains the error — No sooner did he arrive / then / the meeting began. / No error.
- (a)No sooner did he arrive
- (b)then
- (c)the meeting began
- (d)No error
Answer(b) then — 'no sooner' pairs with 'than', not 'then'.