NDA (I) 2018 GAT Q21: The politician lost face in his constituency when he broke

Q: What is the answer to NDA (I) 2018 GAT Q21?

C. Correct — C, 'he made to his people.' The promises were made before they were broken, so the earlier of the two past actions needs the past perfect — 'the pre-election promises he had made to his people'.

NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 21 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

The politician lost face in his constituency when he broke the pre-election promises he made to his people. No error.

(a)The politician lost face in his constituency
(b)when he broke the pre-election promises
(c)he made to his people.
(d)No error.

Answer

Why

Correct — C, 'he made to his people.' The promises were made before they were broken, so the earlier of the two past actions needs the past perfect — 'the pre-election promises he had made to his people'.

Why the others are wrong

(a)The politician lost face in his constituency — This part is sound. 'Lose face' is a settled idiom meaning to be humiliated or to lose respect, and the simple past suits the later of the two events.
(b)when he broke the pre-election promises — This part is sound too; 'broke' is the simple past for the more recent action, which is exactly what the sentence needs here.
(d)No error. — The sentence does carry a mistake, so this cannot be marked — the tense in the third part is wrong.

Concept

When one past action happens before another, English marks the earlier one with the past perfect, formed with 'had' and the past participle, and leaves the later one in the simple past.

Both verbs in the sentence sit in the simple past, which flattens the order of events; the promises must have existed before they could be broken. The relative pronoun is left out in 'the promises he made', and that omission is perfectly normal English, so it is not the error — the tense is.

Key facts

The past perfect is used for the earlier of two past events — 'he had made' before 'he broke'.
'Lose face' means to suffer a loss of respect, and 'save face' means to avoid one.
A relative pronoun may be dropped when it is the object of its clause — 'the promises (that) he had made'.

Study next

Sequence of tenses when a sentence holds two past eventsThe past perfect and when it is requiredIdioms built on 'face' — lose face, save face, face up toRelative clauses with the pronoun left out

Common traps

Hunting for a missing 'that' and marking the wrong part of the sentence.
Accepting two simple pasts because each verb looks correct on its own.

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

Related PYQs

NDA_GAT_2019_II_Q222019Open & attempt →

Most of us who are older competitive runners (a) are not able to race anywhere at the same speed (b) as we do when we were 30 (c). No error (d)

(a) Most of us who are older competitive runners
(b) are not able to race anywhere at the same speed
(c) as we do when we were 30
(d) No error

Answer(c) as we do when we were 30

The same ground of making the verb match the time being spoken about, marked wrong in a segment that otherwise reads smoothly.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which part carries the error — (a) She thanked the teacher / (b) who taught her / (c) before she joined this school. / (d) No error
- (a)She thanked the teacher
- (b)who taught her
- (c)before she joined this school.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) who taught her — the teaching came earlier, so it needs 'who had taught her'.
practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the form that fits — The train ______ before we reached the station.
- (a)leaves
- (b)had left
- (c)has left
- (d)is leaving
Answer(b) had left — the departure is the earlier of the two past events.