English Language
What is tested
English Language in CIL MT is a usage paper, not a literature paper. Expect error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks (single and double), synonyms and antonyms, idioms and phrases, one-word substitution, spelling, para jumbles, cloze tests, and one or two reading comprehension passages.
Grammar points that repeat
Subject-verb agreement with 'one of the + plural noun + singular verb'; collective nouns and 'the number of' versus 'a number of'; 'since' (point of time) versus 'for' (duration); 'no sooner … than' and 'hardly … when'; articles before unique things and before vowel sounds rather than vowels; prepositions after verbs (depend on, comply with, capable of); active-passive and direct-indirect conversion; and confusable pairs such as affect/effect, principal/principle, complement/compliment.
Traps
Sentence-improvement items often hide a wrong word order rather than a wrong word. Idiom questions are usually literal-sounding but figurative ('to bite the bullet'). In comprehension, an option that is true in the real world but not stated in the passage is wrong - the answer must be supported by the text.
Worked example
'One of my friend are coming.' Two faults: 'one of' needs a plural noun, and the verb must agree with 'one', not with the plural noun. Correct: 'One of my friends is coming.' Rule of thumb: strip the sentence to subject and verb; if they disagree in number, the sentence is wrong no matter how natural it sounds.