Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: sugars in her milk.
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This is an error spotting question that tests your knowledge of standard English usage. The sentence describes Latika continuing a habit in spite of a doctor's stern warning. You must examine each labelled part and decide which segment contains a grammatical or idiomatic error. Only one part should be considered wrong for the purpose of this question.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- Full sentence with labels:
(1) Inspite of the doctor's stern warning
(2) Latika continued taking
(3) sugars in her milk.
(4) No Error.
- You must choose the part with the clearest, exam relevant error.
Concept / Approach:
The key issue here is the correct use of uncountable nouns. The word sugar, when used to refer to the substance that people add to tea, coffee or milk, is normally treated as an uncountable noun. Therefore, we say sugar in her milk, not sugars in her milk. Although the string Inspite in part 1 would usually be written as in spite in formal English, exam questions of this pattern generally focus on one intended error. The more prominent and unambiguous grammatical mistake for learners here is the plural sugars in part 3.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Examine part 1: Inspite of the doctor's stern warning. In formal writing, this is better expressed as In spite of the doctor's stern warning, but many learners and exam keys treat Inspite as a spelling variant.
Step 2: Examine part 2: Latika continued taking. This is grammatically fine and leads naturally to an object like sugar in her milk.
Step 3: Examine part 3: sugars in her milk. The noun sugar, when referring to the sweet substance, is an uncountable noun, so the plural form sugars is incorrect in this context.
Step 4: A corrected version of this part would be sugar in her milk or sugar with her milk.
Step 5: Part 4 claims that there is no error, which is not true because part 3 definitely contains incorrect usage.
Verification / Alternative check:
Rewrite the sentence in correct English to confirm the error. In spite of the doctor's stern warning, Latika continued taking sugar in her milk. This version sounds natural and standard. Only one change is required in meaning carrying words: sugars becomes sugar. The rest of the sentence keeps the same structure and intention. This shows that the problematic portion is clearly part 3. For exam purposes, that is the part you should identify as containing the error.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Inspite of the doctors stern warning: Although in spite is the more standard spelling, many exam patterns focus on other issues instead. The grammatical structure of the clause is otherwise acceptable.
Latika continued taking: This is grammatically correct and appropriately uses the continuous sense of continued taking.
The sentence is grammatically correct; No Error: This is wrong because there is indeed an error in part 3.
Common Pitfalls:
Test takers sometimes overlook uncountable noun errors because they are used to hearing non standard plural forms in everyday speech. Words like furniture, information, luggage, and sugar are very often misused in the plural. In competitive exams, however, such errors are deliberate traps. To avoid them, keep in mind that when you talk about these items in general, you do not add an s. If you need to count, you use expressions like pieces of furniture or spoonfuls of sugar instead of pluralising the uncountable noun itself.
Final Answer:
The error lies in part sugars in her milk., where the uncountable noun sugar has been wrongly used in the plural.
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