THEME: ERROR IDENTIFICATION

TEST 1
* Identify 10 errors in the following passage and correct them
THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE
This week we celebrated Valentine's Day or rather incurable romances and those of us who are a bit
soft in the head did! The fourteenth of February always gives everyone who's anyone a chance to cast a few
pearls of wisdom before their fellow sufferers about the nature of 'the universal migraine' - love.
Francis Farnsworth is the case in point. I'm sure the poor old fellow has a heart of gold but he really does
talk a load of rubbish sometimes! His appearance last night on BBC 1's 'Let's Talk It Over' was not
exception. He started out by having what I will politely call a difference of opinion with Tania Di Monte,
author of 'Tell me the Truth about love'. Ms. Di Monte always expresses the most extraordinary views
without any apparent fear of contradiction. Last night she was boldly set out her rules for a perfect
relationship when poor old Farnsworth accidentally called her Tina. Tina is of course the name of her ex-
husband Darren's second wife and we all know that any mention him - or her –is like a red rag to a bull to
Tania. Farnsworth kept apologizing and saying that it had been a slip of the tongue brought about by a
momentary loss of concentration, but it took all presenter Greg Lazarre's skills to calm our Tania
down again. Francis then started calling her 'darling', which only succeeded in making her even more
furious. 'Term of endearing', he stammered as she glared at him. She had been vehemently denying that
there was even a grain of truth in rumors about her forthcoming engagement with football star Nick
Perez. Nevertheless, I'm sure it is only a question of time before we see Tania and Nick on the cover of 'Hi
There!' celebrating 'the wedding of the century'. If marrying someone like Tania is what happens to you if
you're incredibly successful, like Perez undoubtedly is, I shudder thinking what the price of failure might
be!
Your answer:
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.

TEST 2
There are 10 mistakes in the following passage. Find and correct them.
Jazz, from its early roots in slave spirits and the marching bands of New Orleans, had developed
into the predominantly American musical style by the 1930s. In this era, jazz musicians played a lush,
orchestrated style known as swing. Played in large assembly, also called big bands, swing filled the dance
halls and nightclubs. Jazz, once considered risqué, was made more accessible to masses with the vibrant,
swinging sounds of these big bands. Then came bebop in the mid-1940s, jazz musicians strayed away from
the swing style and developed a more improvisational method of playing known as bebop. Jazz was
transformed from popular music to elite art form.
The soloists in the big bands improvised from the melody. The young musicians who ushered in
bebop, notable trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, expanding on the
improvisational elements of the big bands. They played with advanced harmonies, charged chord
structures, and made chord substitutes. These young musicians got their starts with the leading big bands
of the day, but during World War Il-as older musicians were drafted and dance halls made cutback-they
started to play together in smaller groups.
Your answer:
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.

TEST 3
Identify 10 mistakes in the following passage and correct them.
 If there is one characteristic of British work in the arts that seems to stand out is its shortage of
identification with wider intellectual trends. Playwrights and directors can be left-wing in their political
look-out, but the plays they produce rarely convey a straightforward message. The same is largely true of
British novelists and poets. Their writing is naturalistic and is not connected to particular intellectual
movements. The theatre had always been very strong in Britain, especially in London. The country's most
successful playwrights are those who explore the darker side of the personality and of personal
relationships. In contrast, the cinema in Britain is often regarded as not quite part of the arts in all, it is
simply entertainment. Britain is unique between the large European countries in giving mostly no financial
help to their film industry. Classical music is also a minority interest. British seem disinterested in high
education, they watch lots of television, but are enthusiastic readers. The vast majority of books reading in
Britain are not classified as serious literature.
Your answer:
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.

TEST 4
There are ten mistakes in this passage which you have to find and correct
The potential of computers for increasing the control in organisations or society over their members
and for invading the privacy of those members has caused considerable concern.
The privacy issue has been raised most insistently to respect to the creation and maintenance of data
files that assemble information about persons from a multitude of sources. Files of this kind would be high
valuable for many kinds of economic and social search, but they are bought at too high a price if they
endanger human freedom or seriously enhance the opportunities of blackmailers. With such dangers should
not be ignored, it should be noted that the lack of comprehensive data files has never before been the
limiting barrier for the suppression of human freedom.
Making the computer the villa in the invasion of privacy or encroachment on civil liberties simply
divert attention from the real dangers. Computer data banks can and must be given the highest degree of
protection from abuse. But we must be careful, also, that we do not employ such rude methods of
protection on to deprive our society of important data it needs to understand its own social processes and to
analyse its problems.
Perhaps the most important question of all about the computer is when it has been done and will do
to man's view of himself and his place in the universe.
Your answer:
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.

TEST 5
The passage below contains 10 errors. Identify and correct them.
Whatever may be said massive circulation magazines and newspapers, it can't hardly be argued that
they are out of touch with their readers' daydreams, and therefore, the inducements they hold out to them
must be a near accurate reflection of their unfulfilled wants and aspirations. Study this and you will
assuredly understand a good deal of what it is that making society tick. Looking back, for example, to the
twenties and thirties, we can see what circulation managers unerringly diagnosed the twin obsessions which
dominated that era of mass unemployment economical insecurity and a passionate concern for the next
generation.
Thus, it was that readers were recruited with offers of free insurance policies for the one, and free
instant education for the other. The family with breadwinner lost an eye in a double railway derailment, and
an arm in a flood, could confidently expect to collect several hundred pounds from the Daily This or the
Evening That. The family who could not afford to send their son to grammatical school could find
consolation in equipment him with the complete work of Shakespeare in one magnificent, easy to read
volume.
Your answer:
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
9. 10.

To be continued…