English MCQs – Page 42 (Q411-420)

The correct answer is 'Everybody was present at the meeting' because 'everybody' is a singular indefinite pronoun, always taking a singular verb despite its semantically plural, all-encompassing meaning, following the same pattern as 'everyone', 'somebody', and 'nobody'. The distractor options incorrectly use the plural verb 'were' or 'are', or misuse the Present Perfect auxiliary 'have' where a simple past-tense state, 'was present', is required, both breaking this consistently tested singular agreement rule for indefinite pronouns.

The correct answer is 'He is one of the richest men in the city' because the fixed idiom 'one of the + superlative + plural noun' requires the plural, irregular form 'men', not 'man', after the superlative 'richest', following the same structural pattern seen in 'one of the best students'. The distractor options either create a double superlative with 'most richest', omit the required definite article 'the', or incorrectly use the singular 'man', all violating the fixed grammar of this frequently tested superlative construction.

The correct answer is 'Let him and me go together' because pronouns functioning as the object of the verb 'let', even within a compound object like 'him and me', must take the objective case, not the subjective case reserved for sentence subjects. This is a commonly confused rule, since speakers often mistakenly use subject pronouns like 'he' and 'I' out of a misplaced sense of formality. The distractor options incorrectly mix subjective and objective pronouns or use the wrong case entirely, both frequent errors in compound pronoun usage.

The correct answer is 'It is I who am responsible' because in formal, traditionally correct English, the pronoun following 'It is' in this construction takes the subjective case 'I' rather than the objective 'me', and the verb in the relative clause, 'who am responsible', must agree with the person of that pronoun, first-person singular, requiring 'am' rather than 'is'. This dual requirement, subjective pronoun case plus matching first-person verb agreement, makes this one of the more advanced and frequently tested pronoun-verb agreement questions in formal English.

The correct answer is 'Between you and me, this is a secret' because 'between' is a preposition, and pronouns following a preposition must take the objective case, 'me', rather than the subjective case 'I', a rule frequently violated by speakers who mistakenly believe 'and I' always sounds more correct or formal. This 'between you and I' error is one of the most common and widely recognized grammar mistakes in English, making 'between you and me' a frequently and deliberately tested correct-usage question in competitive exams.

The correct answer is 'He is too weak to walk' because the fixed 'too...to' construction expresses that an excessive degree of a quality prevents an action, always followed by the infinitive 'to' plus the base verb, as in 'too weak to walk' or 'too tired to continue'. The distractor options incorrectly substitute a preposition 'for' or a gerund '-ing' form in place of the required infinitive, or mistakenly use 'so' instead of 'too', none of which fit this specific fixed grammatical pattern reserved for expressing a limiting excessive degree.

The correct answer is 'She is so beautiful that everyone admires her' because the fixed 'so...that' construction pairs 'so' directly with an adjective, without an accompanying noun, followed by a 'that' clause expressing the resulting consequence, as in 'so beautiful that'. This differs from the related 'such...that' construction, which is used instead when a noun is present, as in 'such a beautiful girl that'. The distractor options incorrectly mix these two related but distinct intensifying constructions, a common and frequently tested confusion.

The correct answer is 'No sooner had he arrived than it started raining' because 'no sooner...than' is a fixed correlative expression requiring subject-auxiliary inversion after 'no sooner', 'had he arrived' rather than 'he had arrived', and must always pair with 'than', never 'when'. This is one of a small group of negative adverbial expressions, including 'hardly' and 'scarcely', that trigger inversion when placed at the start of a sentence for emphasis. Confusing 'than' with 'when' in this specific idiom is a frequently tested error.

The correct answer is 'Scarcely had she left when the phone rang' because 'scarcely' requires subject-auxiliary inversion when placed at the sentence's start, 'had she left' rather than 'she had left', and conventionally pairs with 'when', unlike 'no sooner', which pairs with 'than'. This distinction, 'scarcely...when' versus 'no sooner...than', despite both expressing near-simultaneous events, is a frequently tested pairing error in advanced grammar questions covering emphatic inversion structures.

The correct answer is 'Not only did he win the race, but he also broke the record' because 'not only' at the beginning of a sentence triggers subject-auxiliary inversion, requiring 'did he win' rather than 'he won', paired with 'but...also' in the second clause to complete the correlative structure. This inversion rule applies to a range of negative and restrictive adverbials placed in initial position for emphasis, including 'never', 'rarely', and 'hardly', all of which similarly require inverted word order when fronted for stylistic effect.