The accused ________ before the judge.
- (a)tried
- (b)was trial
- (c)sat trial
- (d)stood trial
Answer
D
Why
Correct — D, stood trial. English fixes the idea of being tried in court as the collocation 'to stand trial', so 'The accused stood trial before the judge' is the natural, idiomatic completion.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)tried — The active 'tried' has no object here; to mean 'was put on trial' it would need the passive 'was tried', not a bare 'tried'.
- (b)was trial — 'Was trial' is ungrammatical — 'trial' is a noun and cannot follow 'was' as a verb phrase in this way.
- (c)sat trial — 'Sat trial' is not an English collocation; the fixed verb with 'trial' is 'stand', giving 'stood trial'.
Concept
A collocation point: 'stand trial' is the set phrase for being tried in court, and swapping in another verb breaks the idiom.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill in the blank: The suspect will ______ trial next month.
- (a)sit
- (b)stand
- (c)make
- (d)do
Answer(b) stand — the collocation is 'stand trial'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct phrase: The company had to ______ for its actions.
- (a)stand accountable
- (b)sit accountable
- (c)be trial
- (d)make trial
Answer(a) stand accountable — 'stand' collocates with words like 'trial' and 'accountable'.