Rewrite items: 'in spite of', 'such' and the perfect infinitive
A candidate is working on the second section of the paper: five rewrite items, one point each, no half marks. The instructions state that the second sentence must mean the same as the first and that the given opening must be used exactly. The candidate's three answers are:
- 'Although the museum was free, very few students visited it.' → 'In spite of the museum was free, very few students visited it.'
- 'The concert was so loud that we could not hear each other.' → 'It was such loud concert that we could not hear each other.'
- 'People believe the painting is a forgery.' → 'The painting is believed to has been a forgery.'
He argues that item 1 is 'basically right because the contrast is there', and asks whether it would be safer to write 'Despite of the museum being free...'. Eight minutes remain for the last two items.
1. Award a mark (0 or 1) to each of the three answers and explain the grammatical principle each one breaks.
Read the worked answer
Item 1: 0. 'In spite of' is a preposition; it must be followed by a noun phrase or an -ing form, never by a finite clause with its own subject and verb. 'In spite of the museum was free' is ungrammatical. The contrast being 'there' is irrelevant: a rewrite item tests structure as well as meaning.
Item 2: 0. 'Concert' is a singular countable noun, so 'such' requires the article: 'such a loud concert'. Without it the sentence is not English.
Item 3: 0. 'Believed' is passive and the forgery claim is prior to the belief, so the perfect infinitive is needed: 'is believed to have been a forgery'. 'To has been' is not a form that exists. 'Is believed to be a forgery' would also be accepted if the time reference is kept unchanged.
Pattern to memorise: after a preposition → noun/-ing; before a singular countable noun after 'such'/'what' → article; after a passive reporting verb referring to an earlier event → 'to have + past participle'.
2. The candidate proposes 'Despite of the museum being free'. Explain whether this variant rescues item 1, and what it reveals about how he is choosing prepositions.
Read the worked answer
It does not rescue the item, and it is worse than his first attempt. 'Despite' never takes 'of'-the correct forms are 'despite + noun/-ing' and 'in spite of + noun/-ing'. The candidate has blended the two, producing a form that no examiner can award.
The diagnosis matters more than the correction. He is choosing prepositions by sound and by similarity ('in spite of' looks like 'despite of'), not by the complement they take. The reliable test is to ask what follows the linker: if it is a clause (subject + verb), only 'although', 'though', 'even though' work; if it is a noun or -ing form, 'despite' and 'in spite of' work.
Model answers for item 1: 'In spite of the museum being free, very few students visited it' or 'Despite the fact that the museum was free, very few students visited it.' Both are correct; the second is safer under pressure because the clause is preserved and only the linker changes.
3. With eight minutes left and two items untouched, how should the candidate allocate time and in what order should he attempt the remaining work?
Read the worked answer
Roughly three minutes per remaining item, two minutes to check all five. Order by mechanical reliability, not by the order on the page.
Mechanical transformations-reported speech, passive with 'believe/say/think', 'such...that', 'too...to'-should come first, because the operation is rule-driven and checking is quick: does the verb agree, does the article appear, is the infinitive form right? The 'although/despite' family comes last, because it offers several valid solutions and invites exactly the blending error he has just made.
Checking routine for each answer, in ten seconds: (1) does the second sentence use the given opening word for word? (2) is there one finite verb per clause? (3) if a noun follows a preposition, is it a noun or an -ing form? (4) does the meaning survive without adding information?
Finally, never leave a blank once a plausible answer exists: with no half marks, a wrong attempt and an empty line score the same, but a correct guess scores one. Write something rule-shaped rather than nothing.