Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: The investigation’s findings, alarming in both scope and content, (1)/ prompted responses not just from the agencies concerned (2)/ but also from the auditors who report they (3)/ were never granted access to critical records. (4)
- (a)(1)
- (b)(2)
- (c)(3)
- (d)(4)
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The main verb fixes the time: the findings prompted responses, one finished past event.
Read as the auditors' response to those findings, their report belongs to the same past moment, so it takes the past: who reported they were never granted access.
Part (3) keeps the present report, so the error sits there → option (c).
Why the others are wrong
- (a)(1) — Part (1) is sound: the plural subject findings is followed by a descriptive phrase between commas, alarming in both scope and content, and the past verb prompted has no singular or plural form to get wrong.
- (b)(2) — Not just … but also is a correct correlative, and it is balanced here: from the agencies concerned pairs with from the auditors, a from-phrase on each side.
- (d)(4) — Were never granted is already past, so it fits once part (3) reads reported. The passive is right too: access is granted to the auditors, not by them.
Concept
Tense consistency: keep verbs in the same tense while they describe the same time frame, and shift tense only when the time actually changes.
Here the time frame is set by the main verb prompted. The auditors' report is their response to the findings, part of that same finished event, so it takes the past: reported.
A present tense after a past main verb is not always wrong. A relative clause can keep it for something still true now: She met a man who lives in Paris.
In everyday English, who report can stand if the auditors are still saying it now.
The key reads the whole sentence as one finished past event, fixed by prompted, and parts (1), (2) and (4) carry no error, so part (3) is where it sits.
Key facts
- Keep verbs in one tense while they describe one time frame, and shift tense only when the time changes.
- A relative clause may keep the present after a past main verb when its fact is still true now: She met a man who lives in Paris.
- A universal truth keeps the present even after a past reporting verb: He said that the earth is round.
- Not just … but also works like not only … but also and needs matching forms after each half.
Study next
Common traps
- Hunting in part (2) because not just … but also looks like a correlative slip, when both halves are from-phrases and match.
- Passing report because it sounds natural in speech, and missing that prompted fixes the time of the whole sentence.
Tense inside a clause that depends on a past main verb is also the keyed error at 15 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.10, where refused to comment is followed by until the investigation would be completed and the key marks part (2).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.