In the following sentence, identify the part that contains an error, or select 'No error': "\"You did not answer my / question," he said, / stepping toward her."

Introduction / Context:
This is another error spotting question where a sentence is broken into numbered segments. The sentence reports dialogue and a physical action that follows it. Your job is to identify which segment contains a grammatical or usage error, or declare that there is no error if all parts are correct.

Given Data / Assumptions:

- Part 1: "You did not answer my - Part 2: question," he said, - Part 3: stepping to her. - Part 4: No error. - The intended meaning is that he spoke these words and then moved closer in her direction.

Concept / Approach:
The phrase stepping to her is not idiomatic in standard English when describing movement toward a person. More natural expressions include stepping toward her or stepping up to her. The rest of the sentence, including the reported speech and the reporting verb he said, is grammatically sound. Therefore, we must focus on the preposition and object in Part 3 to locate the error.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Read the entire sentence as one unit: "You did not answer my question," he said, stepping to her. Step 2: Examine Part 1. The negative past form did not answer is correct, and my question is also correct. There is no error here. Step 3: Check Part 2. The punctuation "question," he said, correctly follows direct speech conventions, and there is no grammatical issue. Step 4: Focus on Part 3. The collocation stepping to her sounds awkward; English normally uses toward with verbs of movement when indicating direction towards a person or object. Step 5: Recognise that a better expression would be stepping toward her or stepping up to her. This shows that the original preposition to is not the best choice. Step 6: Conclude that Part 3 contains the error, since the preposition used after stepping is incorrect.

Verification / Alternative check:
Rewrite the sentence with the corrected phrase: "You did not answer my question," he said, stepping toward her. This version reads smoothly and reflects standard usage. The rest of the sentence still sounds correct, which confirms that only Part 3 required change. Therefore, the error is restricted to the misused preposition to in the original fragment stepping to her.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Part 1 forms a grammatically correct clause in the simple past. Part 2 correctly joins the spoken words to the reporting clause. Part 4, No error, would be chosen only if the entire sentence were acceptable. Because we have clearly identified a usage error in Part 3, options 1, 2, and 4 cannot be correct answers.

Common Pitfalls:
Learners sometimes underestimate the importance of small prepositions like to, toward, or at and assume that any of them will work. In reality, English has strong preferences in set expressions such as go to school, look at him, and step toward her. For error spotting tasks, training your ear with natural collocations through reading and listening practice greatly reduces the chance of overlooking such subtle errors.

Final Answer:
3 is the correct choice, because stepping to her should be stepping toward her or stepping up to her.