English Language and Comprehension
What this section tests
The English paper is a comprehension and correctness test: a passage followed by questions, then synonym and antonym items, idiom meaning, preposition and article fill-ins, sentence correction, and active/passive or direct/indirect conversion.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb, and phrases between subject and verb do not change it - “The list of items is long”.
- With “one of + plural noun”, the verb stays singular - “One of the guards was on duty”.
- Correlatives keep parallel form: “not only … but also”, “either … or”. With “either/or” and “neither/nor”, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Idioms are fixed units to be learned whole: “to burn the midnight oil” = to work or study late; “a bolt from the blue” = a complete surprise.
Worked example
“Neither the supervisor nor the guards ___ present.” Options: was / were. Apply the proximity rule: the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it, which is “guards”, plural - so “were”. Answer: were.
Comprehension method
Read the questions first, then locate the exact sentence each answer rests on. Answer strictly from the text. The most common error is choosing a statement that is true in real life but never made in the passage.
Traps
- Spelling pairs that look alike: affect/effect, principal/principle, stationary/stationery, complement/compliment.
- Correction items often include a “no error” option - do not improve a sentence that is already correct.
- In direct/indirect conversion, backshift the tense and adjust time and place words (tomorrow → the next day, here → there).