English Language: Comprehension, Usage and Sentence Structure
The English Language section of NABARD Grade A Phase I carries 30 questions inside a 200-question, 120-minute paper with one-fourth negative marking. It tests comprehension and usage, not literature: reading comprehension (usually two passages), para-jumbles, phrase replacement, error detection, cloze tests, fillers, synonym/antonym and match-the-column.
Core rules
- In reading comprehension, fix the theme and tone from the opening and closing paragraphs first, then locate each detail question's line; an inference must be provable from the passage alone.
- Para-jumbles: find the opening sentence - it introduces a full noun and carries no pronoun (this, these, it) or connector (however, therefore, moreover) pointing backwards. Then chain sentences by connectors and chronology.
- Phrase replacement and error spotting reward collocation: deliberate on, comply with, consist of, superior to. A sentence that reads smoothly can still be grammatically wrong.
- Fillers in this paper often test idioms and one-word usage, so learn phrases as units rather than as isolated words.
Worked example
"The committee has been deliberating on the proposal since two months." The tense (present perfect continuous) is correct, but "since" marks a point in time; with a duration the correct preposition is "for". Corrected: "...for two months." The same logic separates "since 2019" (a point) from "for three years" (a duration).
Traps
- Picking a word that fits the meaning but not the preposition or subject-verb agreement.
- In "which of the following cannot be inferred", options that are true in the real world but unstated in the passage are the classic wrong answer.
- In para-jumbles, assuming the shortest sentence is the opener; openers are identified by grammar, not length.
- Ignoring the negative-word instruction (except, not, least) and answering the opposite question.