The sentence has been divided into four parts and marked a, b, c and d. One of…
2024
The sentence has been divided into four parts and marked a, b, c and d. One of these parts contains a mistake in grammar or idiom. Identify that part and mark it as the answer.
When I was transferred to a far-off place, (A)/ I decided not to carry my furniture (B)/ all the way to the new station but to (C)/ dispose them off locally (D).
- A.
A
- B.
B
- C.
C
- D.
D
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: A pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent. Collective/uncountable nouns such as ‘furniture’, ‘luggage’, ‘information’, and ‘advice’ are grammatically singular in English, so any pronoun referring back to them must also be singular (‘it’) — never the plural ‘they/them’.
Application: ‘Furniture’ is introduced as the antecedent in part B (‘carry my furniture’). Part D refers back to that same furniture with the pronoun ‘them’ — ‘dispose them off locally’ — which wrongly treats it as plural; since ‘furniture’ is singular, the pronoun must be ‘it’. The standard idiom is also ‘dispose of’, not ‘dispose off’, so the fully corrected clause reads ‘dispose of it locally’.
Cross-check: the remaining parts are each internally sound:
‘When I was transferred to a far-off place’ — correct past-tense passive construction introducing the sentence; no pronoun-agreement issue.
‘I decided not to carry my furniture’ — correct subject-verb agreement and infinitive structure; ‘furniture’ itself is used correctly here as the direct object.
‘all the way to the new station but to’ — correct parallel structure linking ‘not to carry … but to [dispose]’.
Since only part D violates the singular-antecedent rule, D is the part containing the error.