Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: PRQ
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This sentence rearrangement item tests your ability to combine broken parts of a sentence in a logically and grammatically correct order. The sentence comments on foreign policy, suggesting that we should learn from history and avoid interfering in the domestic politics of our neighbours. You must arrange the labelled segments to produce a smooth, meaningful sentence from the jumbled parts.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
First, identify the logical flow. The subject and main clause start as 'We should learn our lesson …'. The next idea is that we should 'stay away from interfering in the messy domestic politics of our neighbours.' The phrase 'from this history and stay away' (P) should directly follow 'learn our lesson', since we learn our lesson from history. The phrase 'from interfering in the messy domestic politics' (R) must follow 'stay away', hence 'stay away from interfering…'. Finally, 'of our neighbours' (Q) naturally attaches to 'the messy domestic politics' to specify whose politics we are talking about. Therefore, the logical order is P–R–Q.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Begin with the fixed starting segment: 'We should learn our lesson …'
Step 2: Attach P: 'from this history and stay away …' – we learn our lesson from history and then stay away; this fits the structure.
Step 3: Next add R: 'from interfering in the messy domestic politics …' – the verb phrase 'stay away' is followed by a 'from' phrase indicating what we should avoid doing.
Step 4: Finally, add Q: 'of our neighbours' – this naturally qualifies 'the messy domestic politics' to specify whose domestic politics.
Step 5: The full sentence becomes: 'We should learn our lesson from this history and stay away from interfering in the messy domestic politics of our neighbours.'
Step 6: This sequence corresponds to PRQ among the given options.
Verification / Alternative check:
Read the reconstructed sentence with PRQ: 'We should learn our lesson from this history and stay away from interfering in the messy domestic politics of our neighbours.' It is grammatically correct, logically coherent, and stylistically natural. Now test another possible sequence, such as PQR: 'We should learn our lesson from this history and stay away of our neighbours from interfering in the messy domestic politics.' This is clearly wrong because 'stay away of' is not a standard construction. Similarly, QPR or RPQ give awkward or ungrammatical combinations like 'of our neighbours from interfering …' or starting immediately with 'from interfering…' after 'We should learn our lesson', which fails to mention history properly.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
PQR gives 'stay away of our neighbours', which is incorrect; the correct preposition with 'stay away' is 'from', not 'of'. QPR would start with 'of our neighbours' directly after 'We should learn our lesson', which makes no sense as it lacks a noun to attach to. RPQ would join 'We should learn our lesson from interfering…', wrongly suggesting that interfering is what taught us the lesson, and then ends in a grammatically broken phrase. Only PRQ preserves the correct idiomatic sequences 'learn our lesson from' and 'stay away from interfering in … of our neighbours'.
Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes choose an order that looks superficially smooth but ignores preposition–verb pairings, such as using 'stay away of' instead of 'stay away from'. Another pitfall is not noticing that some fragments must logically attach to certain nouns, for example 'of our neighbours' must describe 'the messy domestic politics'. A good strategy is to first find fixed collocations like 'learn our lesson from' and 'stay away from', then attach remaining pieces where they make sense semantically and grammatically.
Final Answer:
The correct order is PRQ, giving: 'We should learn our lesson from this history and stay away from interfering in the messy domestic politics of our neighbours.'
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