Parts of a sentence are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the parts in the correct order to form a meaningful sentence. A. The upper part of the river B. Continuous rain on C. Week, there had been D. During the previous

Correct — C. Let each fragment's loose end name the part that must follow it.

D + C: "During the previous" ends on an adjective with no noun to modify, and only C supplies one — "Week, there had been".

C + B: the existential "there had been" needs its real subject — "Continuous rain".

B + A: "rain on" ends in a preposition waiting for its object — "The upper part of the river".

Whole: During the previous week, there had been continuous rain on the upper part of the river. That is DCBA, option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  ADCB — ADCB ends on part B, leaving the preposition on with nothing after it. It also opens with a bare noun phrase, 'The upper part of the river', that never becomes the subject of anything.
• (b)
  DBAC — DBAC joins D to B, so 'previous' ends up modifying 'continuous rain' and the time noun Week is stranded at the end with 'there had been' hanging off it.
• (d)
  ABCD — ABCD is just the parts in the order they are lettered. It yields 'The upper part of the river continuous rain on week, there had been', where no part joins the next.

Part-arrangement items are solved at the joints, not from the meaning. Each fragment ends or begins with something grammatically incomplete, and that incompleteness names its neighbour.

Three joints settle this sentence. During is a preposition of time and wants a time noun, so D must meet "Week". there had been is an existential clause whose real subject follows the verb, so C must meet "Continuous rain". on is a preposition, so B must meet its object.

Fix the joints and the option letters follow.

Key facts

• In an existential clause the dummy subject there comes before the verb and the real subject after it: there had been continuous rain.
• A part ending in a preposition, like B's on, cannot be the last part of the sentence.
• During takes a noun phrase of time, which is the joint that forces D onto C's 'Week'.

Common traps

• Marking ABCD because the parts are already lettered in that order. Check that it parses first.
• Letting 'During the previous continuous rain' pass because it sounds like English. It leaves Week with no home.
• Assembling by meaning alone. A stranded preposition and a determiner without a noun decide it faster.

No directly related past PYQ was found.