Use Of English 2006 Jamb Examination

The subject of the sentence is 'a number of stolen cars'. When 'a number of' precedes a plural noun, the verb must also be plural. Therefore, the correct verb phrase is 'have been recovered'.
The expression 'has being' and 'have being' are grammatically incorrect because 'being' cannot follow the auxiliary verbs 'has' or 'have' in the perfect tense. The correct past participle is 'been'.

The question refers to an event in the past with no auxiliary verb at the beginning. The correct form is 'He's been there to look several times without success.'
'He's' is a contraction of 'He has', which correctly fits the present perfect tense structure: 'He has been'. The other options either form incorrect contractions ('He' II') or change the sentence into a question ('Is he').

The adjective 'low' must be modified by an adverb because it describes how the blood pressure dropped. The correct adverb is 'dangerously'. Hence, 'dangerously low' is correct. 'Lowly' is an adjective, not an adverb, and cannot describe 'dropped'.

The action of hoping occurred before another past event (losing the election). This requires the past perfect continuous tense: 'had been hoping'.
The phrase 'had been hoping' shows a continuous action that started in the past and ended before another past event. The other options use incorrect tense forms for the context.

The sentence uses a conditional clause with a past tense verb ("applied") to express a hypothetical situation. Since the clause describes something that didn't happen (he didn't apply), the main clause uses the past tense modal "would" to indicate a result that also didn't happen.

A robber who shows no mercy is 'ruthless'. The word 'ruthless' means cruel and without pity. 'Loquacious' means talkative, 'senseless' means lacking meaning or logic, and 'benevolent' means kind-hearted — all unsuitable for the context describing a merciless robber.

The correct British English spelling of the word is 'diarrhoea'. The other options are misspellings. British English uses 'diarrhoea' while American English spells it 'diarrhea'.

The verb 'practise' (with an 's') is the correct form in British English when used as a verb. The conditional clause 'if you practise hard' expresses a general truth, so the simple present tense is used. The other options are incorrect because 'practical' is an adjective, and 'are practising' implies a continuous action not matching the conditional structure.

In English, the normal order of adjectives is: quantity → quality/opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose → noun. 'Big' (size) comes before 'black' (colour), and 'spitting' (purpose/type) comes next. Therefore, the correct order is 'big black spitting cobra'.

The statement 'He wrote to you' is in the simple past tense, so the appropriate question tag should use 'did'. Therefore, the correct tag question is 'didn't he?'. The rule is that the auxiliary in the question tag must match the tense and polarity of the main clause.