English Language and Comprehension
What this domain tests
The English section checks grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, comprehension and usage. Common item types are error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks, cloze passages, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, one-word substitutions and reading comprehension.
Core rules
- Subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, not with an intervening phrase.
- “One of + plural noun” takes a singular verb: “One of the officers is present.”
- With “neither…nor” and “either…or”, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Use “fewer” for countable nouns and “less” for uncountable nouns.
- In comprehension, answer from the passage, not from general knowledge.
Worked example
Sentence: “One of the boys who ___ absent yesterday ___ now present.” The relative clause “who” refers to “boys”, so it takes “were”. The main subject is “One”, so the main verb takes “is”. Correct sentence: “One of the boys who were absent yesterday is now present.”
Traps
Look-alike words cause errors: affect/effect, principal/principle, stationary/stationery. Avoid dangling modifiers: “Walking down the road, the tower was seen” is wrong because the tower was not walking. In cloze tests, check collocation and tense, not just meaning.
Exam focus
Revise tense consistency, prepositions, articles, voice and common idioms. For comprehension, skim the questions first, then locate the relevant line and paraphrase it.