Mock Exam Reading Grammar

Respuesta correcta: A) The bus from San Jose leaves Cartago at six in the morning.

• A) The bus from San Jose leaves Cartago at six in the morning.Correct: the subject The bus is singular, and the present simple third person verb leaves agrees with it.
• B) The students waiting at the stop is worried about the delay.The subject The students waiting at the stop is plural, so the verb must be are worried, not is.
• C) My brother works in Heredia and they studies engineering in the week.They studies mixes a plural pronoun with a singular verb; it should be he studies or they study.
• D) The teacher ask us to arrive before the school bell rings.The teacher is third person singular, so the present simple needs asks instead of the base verb ask.

Respuesta correcta: C) We have to return the books on Friday, haven't we?

• A) We have to return the books on Friday, don't we?A positive statement with have to needs the auxiliary have, so the tag must be haven't we, not don't we.
• B) We have to return the books on Friday, hasn't it?The pronoun it has no match in the statement, which is about we, so a tag built on it cannot agree.
• C) We have to return the books on Friday, haven't we?Correct: the tag copies the auxiliary have in the negative and keeps the pronoun we from the main clause.
• D) We have to return the books on Friday, didn't they?Didn't they is both negative and past, while the statement is positive and present, so the tag fails.

Respuesta correcta: B) She recommended taking the bus early instead of staying for the concert.

• A) She recommended to take the bus early instead of staying for the concert.After recommend the object is a gerund, so an infinitive beginning with to is not the pattern this verb takes.
• B) She recommended taking the bus early instead of staying for the concert.Correct: recommend takes a gerund object, so taking the bus is the natural and expected complement.
• C) She recommended take the bus early instead of staying for the concert.A bare base verb cannot follow recommend in this object position, because the object must be a noun or a gerund.
• D) She recommended the taking of the bus early instead of staying for the concert.This is a heavy nominalisation, while the plain gerund taking already carries the action and reads better.

Respuesta correcta: D) 40 patients will be admitted by the clinic in Liberia on Monday.

• A) The clinic in Liberia will admit 40 patients on Monday.This repeats the active sentence unchanged, so the be plus past participle structure never appears.
• B) 40 patients will admit by the clinic in Liberia on Monday.The verb admit is left active after the new subject, so the sentence does not form a passive at all.
• C) 40 patients are admitted by the clinic in Liberia on Monday.Are admitted is a present passive, but the active verb was future, so the tense shifts by mistake.
• D) 40 patients will be admitted by the clinic in Liberia on Monday.Correct: the object becomes the subject, will admit becomes will be admitted, and the agent follows by.

Respuesta correcta: A) She said that she was nervous about the exam.

• A) She said that she was nervous about the exam.Correct: reported speech shifts the tense one step back, so am becomes was and the pronoun changes to she.
• B) She says that she is nervous about the exam.Says and is keep the original tense and pronouns, so the sentence reads as a quotation rather than a report.
• C) She said that she is nervous about the exam.Said marks past reporting, but is was never shifted back, so the reported tense no longer matches the verb.
• D) She told that she was nervous about the exam.Tell requires a named object, as in told me, so it cannot be followed by a bare that clause here.

Respuesta correcta: B) Andres asked what time the library opened.

• A) Andres asked what time did the library open.A reported question takes statement word order, so no auxiliary do and no question mark survive in this clause.
• B) Andres asked what time the library opened.Correct: reported questions keep subject then verb, and does shifts back to the past tense opened.
• C) Andres asked when does the library open.The direct question word does stays in front of the auxiliary, so the clause is not converted at all.
• D) Andres asked if what time the library opens.The word if cannot introduce a what time word group, and the present tense opens was left unshifted.

Respuesta correcta: D) who

• A) whichWhich refers to things, not to a person, so it cannot introduce the clause about the organiser.
• B) whereWhere needs a place as its object, but the clause describes what the woman does, not where she lives.
• C) whoseWhose shows possession, as in whose club, and here the clause has no owner followed by a noun.
• D) whoCorrect: who refers to a person and is the natural relative pronoun before the verb organises.

Respuesta correcta: A) Each of the students has to bring two books.

• A) Each of the students has to bring two books.Correct: the subject of each is the singular pronoun it, so the verb takes the third person singular has.
• B) Each of the students have to bring two books.This repeats the original error, because have disagrees with the singular pronoun hidden inside each of.
• C) Each of the student have to bring two books.The noun is in the wrong number, since each needs the plural form students before the preposition of.
• D) Every of the students has to bring two books.Every cannot be followed by of the students, because every is already a determiner and does not allow that partitive.

Respuesta correcta: C) Braulio's team collected waste. It paid the workers. The stream turned clean.

• A) The stream turned clean. Braulio's team collected waste. It paid the workers.The result appears before its causes, and the pronoun It then points at a team that has not been introduced.
• B) Braulio's team paid the workers. The stream turned clean. It collected waste.Payment comes before the collection that funds it, and It shifts its reference back to the team again.
• C) Braulio's team collected waste. It paid the workers. The stream turned clean.Correct: collection funds the payment, and the cleaning of the stream follows as the visible final result.
• D) Braulio's team collected waste. The stream turned clean. It paid the workers.The result arrives too early, and It after it refers to the stream, which cannot pay anybody.

Respuesta correcta: B) They had prepared a long list of questions about the new library.

• A) It had prepared a long list of questions about the new library.It could point to the committee or to the mayor, so the reader cannot tell who wrote the questions.
• B) They had prepared a long list of questions about the new library.Correct: they matches the plural subject the committee and keeps the reference stable in the passage.
• C) He had prepared a long list of questions about the new library.He points to the mayor, which changes the actor and contradicts the reading that the committee prepared them.
• D) This had prepared a long list of questions about the new library.This cannot stand for a person or a group, so it breaks the agreement and the reference at once.

Respuesta correcta: C) Not until midnight did the storm reach Puntarenas.

• A) The storm did not reach Puntarenas until it was at midnight.This is a normal clause with the negative after the subject, so no inversion is present at all.
• B) Until midnight the storm was reaching the town of Puntarenas.The past continuous suggests an action in progress, but nothing here shows that progressive meaning.
• C) Not until midnight did the storm reach Puntarenas.Correct: after a negative adverbial at the start, the auxiliary did comes before the subject for emphasis.
• D) The storm was not reaching Puntarenas until it was at midnight.The progressive form was reaching suggests an ongoing action that the sentence never establishes.

Respuesta correcta: A) If he had studied harder, he would have passed the entrance exam.

• A) If he had studied harder, he would have passed the entrance exam.Correct: the third conditional pairs if plus had with would have, so it describes an unreal past situation.
• B) If he studied harder, he would pass the entrance exam.That is the second conditional, used for a present or future situation that is not real yet.
• C) If he had studied harder, he would pass the entrance exam.The tenses do not agree, because had plus would signals a mixed pair that no conditional form allows.
• D) If he studies harder, he would have passed the entrance exam.The present tense if clause cannot combine with the past perfect of would have, so the pair is ungrammatical.

Respuesta correcta: D) In short, the library opened in May to serve more students in the town.

• A) The new library in Alajuela also opened a small cinema next to the main hall.The cinema is a new detail, and a summary must never introduce facts the passage did not contain.
• B) Next year the council will probably build a second library in the town of Alajuela.This is a prediction about the future, but a summary stays inside what the passage already said.
• C) Some people in Alajuela think that the library should not have opened in May.This reports another reader's opinion, which changes the voice of a summary from neutral to personal.
• D) In short, the library opened in May to serve more students in the town.Correct: it restates the opening and its purpose, adds nothing, and signals the summary with In short.

Respuesta correcta: B) Maria insisted on paying the whole dinner bill herself.

• A) Maria insisted on pay the whole dinner bill herself.Insist takes the preposition on followed by a gerund, so a bare infinitive is not possible after it.
• B) Maria insisted on paying the whole dinner bill herself.Correct: insist on is a fixed phrase completed by a gerund, which is why paying follows the preposition.
• C) Maria insisted in paying the whole dinner bill herself.The preposition is wrong, because the idiom is insist on and no form of insist uses in this pattern.
• D) Maria insisted paying on the whole dinner bill herself.The gerund and the preposition are separated, and a gerund cannot be split from the preposition that governs it.

Respuesta correcta: C) The winners will be announced the following day.

• A) The winners are going to be announce in the next day by them.The passive is broken, because the participle announce must follow the auxiliary and never stand alone.
• B) Tomorrow it is them who are going to announcing the winners.The emphatic structure with them who requires a verb like will announce, and announcing after are is wrong.
• C) The winners will be announced the following day.Correct: the passive will be announced is complete, and the formal phrase the following day suits a report.
• D) Tomorrow they are announcing the winners in a very official way.The progressive are announcing suggests an action in progress, which the original sentence never states.

Respuesta correcta: D) As a result, the workers rest in the shade during the hottest hours.

• A) In contrast, the workers only start at four in the morning.In contrast signals opposition, but the sentence after it continues the same topic with no opposing idea.
• B) On the other hand, the workers leave the farm before noon.On the other hand also marks contrast, and no second view is set against the first one here.
• C) Similarly, the workers take a bus from Turrialba every day.Similarly adds a comparable point, which is not the relationship a following reason creates.
• D) As a result, the workers rest in the shade during the hottest hours.Correct: As a result introduces a consequence, and the rest in the shade is the outcome that follows.

Respuesta correcta: B) Twelve patients were treated by the nurse yesterday.

• A) Twelve patients were treat by the nurse yesterday.The passive needs a past participle, so treat after the auxiliary were leaves the structure unfinished.
• B) Twelve patients were treated by the nurse yesterday.Correct: the past participle treated follows the auxiliary were and the agent is added with by.
• C) Twelve patients have been treated by the nurse yesterday.The present perfect cannot stand with the finished time expression yesterday, which fixes the past.
• D) Twelve patients were treating by the nurse yesterday.Treating is a gerund or present participle and cannot fill the passive slot after the auxiliary were.

Respuesta correcta: C) If the council approved the plan, we would paint the mural this weekend.

• A) If the council approves the plan, we will paint the mural this weekend.The first conditional uses if plus present and will, and it treats the approval as a real future possibility.
• B) If the council approves the plan, we would paint the mural this weekend.Mixing present if with would past breaks the pair, since the second conditional needs if plus past simple.
• C) If the council approved the plan, we would paint the mural this weekend.Correct: the third conditional pair if plus past simple with would describes a future action under an unlikely condition.
• D) If the council will approve the plan, we would paint the mural this weekend.An if clause never takes will or a future auxiliary, because the tense belongs to the main clause.

Respuesta correcta: A) Our class visited Monteverde in July, and we saw clouds below the bridge.

• A) Our class visited Monteverde in July, and we saw clouds below the bridge.Correct: both clauses stay in the past simple, and the time word in July anchors both events to the trip.
• B) Our class visits Monteverde in July and we saw clouds below the bridge.Visits is present simple while saw is past, so the sentence jumps between two different time frames.
• C) Our class visited Monteverde in July, and tomorrow we will see clouds below it.The second clause moves to a future tomorrow, which breaks the single past reference set by visited in July.
• D) Our class has visited Monteverde in July, so we are seeing the clouds now.Has visited points to a finished event but are seeing suggests an action still in progress at the moment of writing.

Respuesta correcta: D) It makes the general claim concrete, so the reader can picture the situation.

• A) It proves the general claim, which no example can ever do.An example supports and illustrates a claim, but it does not logically prove the claim for every case.
• B) It delays the main idea until the very end of the paragraph.The general claim comes first in this arrangement, so the main idea is not left hanging until the end.
• C) It removes the need for any supporting detail in the rest of the text.Details still matter after the example, since a paragraph usually needs more than one piece of support.
• D) It makes the general claim concrete, so the reader can picture the situation.Correct: an example turns an abstract statement into something the reader can picture and accept.