Use of English Part 4: Ordering Transformations for Partial Marks
Ravi is in the last four minutes of Part 4. Three key-word transformations remain, each worth 2 marks. Q1 key word NEVER: 'I had never tasted such spicy food before.' → 'Never ______ such spicy food before.' Ravi has written 'I had tasted'. Q2 key word SUPPOSED: 'People say she left the company voluntarily.' → 'She ______ the company voluntarily.' He has written 'supposed to have left'. Q3 key word MADE: 'The manager made him work late.' → 'He ______ by the manager.' He has written nothing. He knows Q1 needs a different word order but cannot remember the rule. He is worried that adding 'is' to Q2 will make the answer too long; he counts five words if he writes 'is supposed to have left'. He also has a habit of writing two versions separated by a slash in case one is right. The invigilator has just announced four minutes remaining.
1. In what order should Ravi tackle the three questions, and what exactly should he write for the two he can secure?
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Order: Q2, Q3, Q1. Q2 is one word away from a full answer. He should write 'is supposed to have left' (five words, within the limit). This is a passive reporting structure: 'People say she left' becomes 'She is supposed to have left'. Without 'is', the verb phrase has no finite verb. Q3 is a straightforward passive: 'was made to work late' (five words). The causative 'make' takes a to-infinitive in the passive, so 'to work' is required. Q1 is riskier because it needs inversion after the negative adverbial 'Never': 'had I tasted' (three words). He should leave Q1 until last because it requires a rule he is unsure of, while Q2 and Q3 are near-certain marks. Mark logic: each item has two marks, often split across parts of the sentence, so securing complete verb phrases is better than producing a long but broken one.
2. Why should he not write two alternatives, and what should he do if he is still unsure of Q1?
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He should not write alternatives because the instruction asks for the missing words, and the five-word limit applies to what he writes. Two versions separated by a slash can exceed the limit and may be treated as one incorrect answer; at best they look like uncertainty. He should choose the single best grammatical form. For Q1, the trigger is the negative adverbial 'Never' at the start of the sentence, which requires subject–auxiliary inversion: 'had I tasted'. If he cannot recall the rule, he should still write that form rather than leave a blank, because a blank is guaranteed zero. Decision rule: write one complete answer, check the word count, and do not trade a certain short answer for a longer uncertain one.