In the nineteenth century, most traditional scholars tried to stay clear from the imperial Government.
- (a)In the nineteenth century,
- (b)most traditional scholars
- (c)tried to stay clear from the imperial Government.
- (d)No error
Correct — C, 'tried to stay clear from the imperial Government.' The fixed idiom is to stay (or steer) clear of something, not 'clear from' — the phrase pairs with the preposition 'of'. Segment (c) therefore carries the error; it should read 'tried to stay clear of the imperial Government.'
- (a)In the nineteenth century, — A correctly formed and correctly punctuated time adverbial; it carries no error.
- (b)most traditional scholars — A well-formed noun phrase acting as the subject; grammatically fine.
- (d)No error — There is a preposition error in (c) — 'stay clear from' for 'stay clear of' — so the sentence is not error-free.
Error-spotting item testing the fixed preposition in the idiom to stay or steer clear of something.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Spot the error: 'The witness (a) managed to / (b) stay clear from / (c) the whole controversy. / (d) No error'
- (a)managed to
- (b)stay clear from
- (c)the whole controversy.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) stay clear from — the idiom is 'stay clear of', not 'stay clear from'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill in the blank: 'Drivers were told to steer ______ of the flooded road.'
- (a)from
- (b)of
- (c)off
- (d)away
Answer(b) of — 'steer/stay clear of' takes the preposition 'of'.