Question

The sentence has four underlined words or phrases. Choose the word or phrase that must be changed for the sentence to be correct:
The baby was left on charge of an elderly lady.
(a) was left
(b) on charge
(c) an
(d) elderly lady

Answer 1

Hint:Read the given sentence and try to understand the information it is trying to convey. Now go through the options, and point out their role in the sentence(like, ‘an’ is an article; ‘on’ is a preposition). Check whether they are placed correctly in the sentence. Eliminate the options which are correctly placed and you will be left with the option containing the error.

Complete answer: In the context of the question, we can understand that a baby is left to be handled by an elderly lady.
Now, the use of ‘on charge’ is inappropriate because ‘on charge’ refers to charging the battery of a device or appliance. Hence, the preposition ‘on’ that has been used with ‘charge’ changes the desired meaning of the sentence.
The correct answer should be- The baby was left in charge of an elderly lady. ‘In charge’ refers to holding responsibility.
Now, let’s look at the given options-
Option a- ‘was left’ is an incorrect option because both the words have been given in the past tense, indicating that the action took place in the past.
Option b- ‘on charge’ is an incorrect option because ‘on charge’ refers to charging something. Hence, it is different in meaning in the given context.
Option c- ‘an’ is an incorrect option because the indefinite article has been used appropriately.
Option d- ‘elderly lady’ is an incorrect option because there is no error in it.
The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note: ‘In charge’ is a phrasal verb because it has been formed by joining a preposition with a verb. Always remember that phrasal verbs tend to indicate a slightly different meaning in comparison to the literal meaning of its words.