English Language
English Language for NICL AO tests comprehension and grammatical control, not literary knowledge. Prelims carries reading comprehension, cloze test, spotting errors, sentence improvement, fillers, para jumbles and word swap; Mains raises RC to inference level and adds connectors and match-the-column items.
Core rules
- Correlative conjunctions: with either...or and neither...nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- "One of the + plural noun + singular verb": One of the branches is closed.
- Fixed prepositions decide most error-spotting items: comply with, consist of, averse to, deprived of, superior to; discuss takes no preposition.
- Para jumbles: locate the opener (no pronoun, no connector, introduces the topic), then hunt mandatory pairs built on pronoun reference and connectors before scanning options.
- Cloze: read the passage once for tone; each blank obeys either a collocation or a contrast/continuation signal.
Worked example
Neither the branch manager nor his deputies was available at the counter.
The subject nearest the verb is deputies, which is plural, and neither...nor makes the verb agree with that nearer subject. Hence was becomes were. The error sits in the verb, not in nor and not in the preposition.
Traps
- Picking an option because it "sounds right" instead of applying an agreement rule.
- In RC, importing outside insurance or banking knowledge rather than using the passage.
- In word-swap items, choosing two words that are both grammatical but break a fixed collocation.
- In para jumbles, accepting an option whose first sentence opens with This or However.
- In fillers, ignoring the singular/plural form of the noun after the blank.