2019 · Q30
Each item in this section has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled as (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part. If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).
Female literacy rate has gone up by 11% (a) / in the past decade as opposed to (b) / a 3% increase in male literacy. (c) / No error. (d)
EnglishSpotting Errors
- AError in part (a)
- BError in part (b)
- CError in part (c)
- DNo error
Explanation
The keyed error is the connective in part (b): "as opposed to" frames the two statistics as adversaries, but the sentence merely compares two rates of increase, where the neutral comparative idiom "compared with" belongs. The adversative "as opposed to" makes the comparison faulty; (a) and (c) are grammatical. Hence (B).