S1 : The Subsidiary Alliance system was extremely advantageous to the British. S6 : They controlled the defence and the foreign relations of the protected ally. P : They could now maintain a large army at the cost of Indian states Q : if any war occurred in the territories R : either of the British ally or of the Britishers S : This enabled them to fight wars far away from their own territories The proper sequence should be
- (a)P Q R S
- (b)P S Q R
- (c)Q R P S
- (d)S R P Q
Correct — B, P S Q R. The decisive link is the word 'This' at the head of S, which must point back to a fact already stated, and the only fact available is the large army paid for by Indian states in P — so P comes first and S follows it. S is then the main clause that the 'if' fragment Q can hang on, and R, which is only an 'either … or …' phrase, completes the noun 'the territories' with which Q ends. The passage reads: 'The Subsidiary Alliance system was extremely advantageous to the British. They could now maintain a large army at the cost of Indian states. This enabled them to fight wars far away from their own territories, if any war occurred in the territories either of the British ally or of the Britishers. They controlled the defence and the foreign relations of the protected ally.'
- (a)P Q R S — It attaches the 'if' fragment to P, so the sentence says the British could maintain a large army only when a war broke out. The alliance paid for that army at all times, and S is then left stranded at the end with 'This' pointing back at a war rather than at the army.
- (c)Q R P S — It opens the passage with a bare 'if' fragment hanging off S1, which makes the whole advantage of the system depend on a war breaking out, and it leaves that fragment with no main clause of its own.
- (d)S R P Q — It puts S first, so 'This' has nothing behind it to refer to. It also drops R straight after S, where the 'either … or …' phrase has no noun to attach to, and it ends on Q, an unfinished 'if' fragment sitting immediately before S6.
An ordering item with printed S1 and S6 anchors, decided by a demonstrative that needs an antecedent and by a subordinate fragment that needs a main clause.
Work backwards from the fragments that cannot stand alone. R is not a clause at all, only a two-part phrase, so it has to complete a noun; the noun it fits is 'the territories' at the end of Q, which makes Q R a fixed pair. Q itself is an 'if' fragment and needs a main clause in front of it, and S is the only main clause available. That leaves P as the sentence that follows S1, which is also what 'This' at the head of S requires. Once R is tied to Q, only one option keeps that pair together in the right place.
- A demonstrative such as 'this' or 'these' at the start of a sentence points back to something already said, so a fragment beginning with one can never open a passage.
- A fragment beginning with 'if' is a subordinate clause and must be attached to a main clause; it cannot stand as a sentence.
- An 'either … or …' phrase completes a noun already named rather than introducing a new one, which is why R can only follow Q.
- The Subsidiary Alliance was devised by Lord Wellesley, and under it the ally provided the resources for a British force stationed in its own territory — the arrangement the passage describes as maintaining an army at the cost of Indian states.
- Reading the fragments in the printed P Q R S order and assuming that order is meant.
- Letting an 'if' fragment attach to the nearest clause instead of the one it makes sense with.
Asked as a sentence-ordering item where one demonstrative and one subordinate fragment between them fix the whole sequence.
The statement P. therefore you must listen carefully Q. what the speaker has said R. in order to understand S. will be made just once The proper sequence should be
- (a) S P R Q
- (b) S R Q P
- (c) R S P Q
- (d) S P Q R
Answer(a) S P R Q
Both are solved by threading the fragments that cannot stand alone. There 'in order to understand' has to be handed its object 'what the speaker has said'; here 'if any war occurred in the territories' has to be handed the phrase that completes it. In each item the predicate that belongs to the opening subject goes first, and the dependent parts follow in the order their gaps demand.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which sequence makes a correct paragraph — S1: The new bridge cut the journey to the district town by half. S6: Traders were the first to notice the change. P: This saved every lorry an hour on each trip Q: The road no longer looped around the reservoir R: if the driver started before the morning rush S: and sometimes more
- (a)Q P R S
- (b)P Q S R
- (c)Q P S R
- (d)R Q P S
Answer(c) Q P S R — 'This' must follow the fact it refers to, and the 'if' fragment can only close the sentence it qualifies.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which sequence makes a correct paragraph — S1: The library stayed open through the examination month. S6: Attendance doubled in a fortnight. P: This helped students who worked during the day Q: The reading room was lit until midnight R: either of the college or of the neighbouring school S: and was open to every student
- (a)P Q S R
- (b)Q P S R
- (c)R S Q P
- (d)Q S R P
Answer(d) Q S R P — 'either … or …' completes 'every student', and 'This' must come after the fact it points back to.