NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q5: We often hear people say that most human beings have not

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2018 GAT Q5?

C. Correct — C, 'or grow up enough to stick to truth or non-violence.'. The sentence has already opened its verb with 'have not evolved', so whatever comes after 'or' must be a past participle to share that 'have not' — 'have not evolved or grown up enough'. The printed 'grow' is the plain form and cannot follow the auxiliary.

NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 5 of 146

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

We often hear people say that most human beings have not evolved or grow up enough to stick to truth or non-violence. No error

(a)We often hear people say
(b)that most human beings have not evolved
(c)or grow up enough to stick to truth or non-violence.
(d)No error

Answer

Why

Correct — C, 'or grow up enough to stick to truth or non-violence.'. The sentence has already opened its verb with 'have not evolved', so whatever comes after 'or' must be a past participle to share that 'have not' — 'have not evolved or grown up enough'. The printed 'grow' is the plain form and cannot follow the auxiliary.

Why the others are wrong

(a)We often hear people say — Error-free — 'hear' takes an object and then a bare infinitive, so 'hear people say' is standard English.
(b)that most human beings have not evolved — Error-free — a well-formed present-perfect clause; the fault lies in the verb that is joined to it by 'or'.
(d)No error — The second half of the compound verb is in the wrong form, so an error is present.

Concept

When two verbs share one auxiliary, both must take the form that auxiliary demands — here the past participle after 'have not'.

Test a compound verb by reading the auxiliary again with the second verb. 'Have not evolved' works; 'have not grow up' does not, so 'grow' has to become 'grown'. What hides the fault is that the auxiliary and the faulty verb are printed in two different segments, and a candidate who checks each segment in isolation will find nothing wrong with either.

Key facts

The past participle of 'grow' is 'grown'.
'Hear', 'see', 'watch' and 'make' take a bare infinitive after their object: 'I heard him sing'.
In a compound verb sharing one auxiliary, every part must fit it — 'has been read and understood'.

Study next

Parallel structure in compound verbsIrregular past participlesThe bare infinitive after verbs of perceptionError-spotting across a segment boundary

Common traps

Checking only the segment in which the auxiliary appears.
Accepting 'grow up' because the phrase is idiomatic on its own.

Asked as an error-spotting item on parallelism between two verbs sharing one auxiliary.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Fill the blank — The report has been read and ______ by the committee.
- (a)approve
- (b)approved
- (c)approving
- (d)approves
Answer(b) approved — both verbs share 'has been' and so both take the past participle.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which segment carries the error — (a) The children have not eaten / (b) or drink anything / (c) since morning. / (d) No error
- (a)The children have not eaten
- (b)or drink anything
- (c)since morning.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) or drink anything — it should read 'or drunk anything' to share 'have not'.