In each of the following questions, a sentence with four highlighted words is…
2024
In each of the following questions, a sentence with four highlighted words is provided. These highlighted words may be either misspelled or used inappropriately. Select the incorrect word as the answer, and if all the highlighted words are correct in spelling and usage, choose ‘All are correct’ as answer.
When the crown on the head of the newest king, all of the people at the coronation went wild with priase.
- A.
priase
- B.
newest
- C.
crown
- D.
coronation
- E.
All are correct
Attempted by 7 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept
In a spelling-and-usage error question, each highlighted word must be judged on two grounds: is it spelt according to standard English spelling, and is it the right word for the meaning of the sentence? A word fails if either test fails. The task is to find the single highlighted word that breaks one of these rules; if every highlighted word passes both, the answer is ‘All are correct’. (The question asks only about the highlighted words, so the overall grammar of the sentence is not what is being judged.)
Application
Examine each highlighted word in turn:
priase – not a valid English word; the correct spelling of the intended word (meaning enthusiastic approval) is praise. The letters a and i have been transposed, so this is a spelling error.
crown – correctly spelt; the ornamental headpiece of a monarch.
newest – correctly spelt superlative of new.
coronation – correctly spelt; the ceremony of crowning a sovereign.
Only priase violates standard spelling, so it is the incorrect word.
Cross-check
Read the corrected word back in: ‘…went wild with praise’ is spelt correctly and reads naturally, confirming that praise is the intended word and that the original priase was a transposition typo. The other three highlighted words are each correct in spelling and usage, so ‘All are correct’ does not apply.