After our school boys had won a well-contested hockey match P. so that they might communicate the news of their victory to the headmaster Q. who is a keen sportsman R. they came to school in high spirits S. and takes a very lively interest in school games
- (a)Q P S R
- (b)S Q P R
- (c)R P Q S
- (d)P R Q S
Correct — C, R P Q S. The sentence opens with an 'After ...' clause, so the main clause has to come next, and only R has a subject with a finite verb. P is the purpose clause hanging on that main verb, and it ends with 'the headmaster', so the relative clause Q must sit immediately after it; S continues that same relative clause with 'and takes', so it closes the sentence. In full: After our school boys had won a well-contested hockey match, they came to school in high spirits so that they might communicate the news of their victory to the headmaster, who is a keen sportsman and takes a very lively interest in school games.
- (a)Q P S R — It begins with the relative clause 'who is a keen sportsman' before any noun has been given for 'who' to refer to, and it strands the main clause R at the very end.
- (b)S Q P R — 'And takes a very lively interest in school games' cannot start a clause, because both the 'and' and the bare verb depend on a subject that has not yet appeared.
- (d)P R Q S — It places the purpose clause before the main clause it explains, and it separates 'the headmaster' at the end of P from the relative pronoun 'who' by pushing R in between.
A relative clause has to stand next to the noun it describes, and a subordinate opening clause must be followed by the main clause.
The four option sequences printed here are word for word the same as the ones printed for the previous item in this paper. That is not a misprint to work around — each sentence has to be rebuilt from its own parts, and the same four letter-orders simply happen to be offered twice.
- An 'After ...' clause at the start of a sentence is subordinate and cannot stand as the whole sentence.
- A relative pronoun such as 'who' takes the nearest suitable noun before it as its antecedent, so the two must not be separated.
- 'And takes' shares the subject 'who', which is why S has to follow Q directly.
- Assuming that identical option sets in two consecutive items must have the same answer.
Asked as a jumbled-parts item in which the relative pronoun and its antecedent fix the order.
Hardly had my brother descended from the plane P. when the people Q. waved and cheered R. who had come to receive him S. from the lounge The proper sequence should be
- (a) P Q R S
- (b) R S P Q
- (c) R P Q S
- (d) P R S Q
Answer(d) P R S Q
Same skill — a relative clause must sit next to the noun it describes, and the rest falls into place around it. There 'who had come to receive him' has to follow 'the people' before the verb 'waved and cheered' can arrive; here 'who is a keen sportsman' has to follow 'the headmaster'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the parts to make a correct sentence — As soon as the bell rang / P. who was waiting at the gate / Q. the children ran out to meet the driver / R. and was holding the door open / S. of the school bus
- (a)P Q R S
- (b)Q P S R
- (c)Q S P R
- (d)S Q P R
Answer(c) Q S P R — the main clause comes first, 'of the school bus' completes the noun, and the relative clause follows it.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Arrange the parts to make a correct sentence — As soon as the train stopped / P. who was standing near the door / Q. and was waving a red flag / R. the passengers rushed towards the guard / S. of the last compartment
- (a)P Q R S
- (b)R S P Q
- (c)S R Q P
- (d)R P S Q
Answer(b) R S P Q — the relative clause 'who was standing near the door' has to follow the noun it describes.