English Structure of English — LET Practice Questions

The object of a preposition is the noun (or pronoun) that comes RIGHT after a preposition. In 'on the table,' the preposition is 'on' and 'table' is the noun that follows it, so 'table' is the object of the preposition. Note that 'sister' follows 'to' in 'belongs to,' but the question is asking about the prepositional phrase modifying 'book.' Among the options, 'table' is the most direct match.

Tip: Object of preposition = the noun the preposition is pointing AT.

A gerund is an -ing verb that acts as a noun. A gerund phrase is the gerund plus its objects and modifiers, working together as one noun chunk.

In A, "Running a marathon" is the subject of "requires" — the doer of the sentence. That's a gerund phrase as subject.

In B, "watching movies on weekends" is also a gerund phrase, but it works as the object of "enjoys," not as the subject. C and D use infinitive phrases ("to go," "to visit"), not gerunds.

In Standard English, two negatives in the SAME sentence usually cancel each other and produce a positive meaning, which is acceptable. 'Never' and 'without' are both negative words, but together they mean 'he always has a reason when he sings.' That is a grammatically correct double negative because the two negatives intentionally cancel out. The other choices are nonstandard double negatives where both words try to deny the same thing.

Tip: Acceptable double negatives cancel into a positive (not... without, never... without).