Select the option that spots the error in the use of preposition in the given sentence. Deepa and Seema are both good with running, but Deepa is also good at catching the ball and throwing it to the right corner in time.

Correct — D. The adjective good takes at before an activity or a skill: good at running, good at swimming, good at mathematics.

Good with is for a thing or a person you handle well — good with children, good with figures, good with his hands. Running is an activity, so with is the wrong preposition.

The sentence supplies its own proof. Its second clause already writes good at catching the ball, so the faulty segment is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  in time — In time means soon enough, before the moment it is needed, which is what the throw has to be. It is correct here, and it is the phrase most often confused with on time, meaning punctually.
• (b)
  at catching the ball — Good at plus the -ing form is the very pattern the sentence needs. This clause uses it correctly, and it is the model the first clause should have copied.
• (c)
  to the right corner. — Throw something to a place is standard, with to marking where the ball is sent. The full stop printed inside this option comes from the paper, not from an error in the sentence.

Preposition-error items hand you four segments and ask which one uses the wrong preposition. Read each segment as a collocation, a fixed pairing, rather than translating the sense.

good at takes an activity, skill or subject.
good with takes a thing or person handled well.
good for takes a benefit, as in milk is good for you.

Fix those three pairings and this item becomes a two-second decision.

Key facts

• Good at is used before an activity or skill, usually an -ing form: good at running.
• Good with is used before a thing or person handled well, as in good with numbers.
• In time means soon enough, while on time means punctually.

Common traps

• Accepting good with running because with sounds natural before an -ing form.
• Marking in time wrong by reading it as on time.
• Assuming the longest segment must be the faulty one.

No directly related past PYQ was found.