ERROR FINDING

Exercise 1:
The passage below contains 10 errors. Underline and correct them. Write your
answers in the space provided on the right.
Tourism is now among the world’s most important industries,
generate jobs and profits worth billions of pounds. At the same 1._______________
time, however, mass tourism can have dire effects on the people 2. _______________
and places they embraces – both tourists and the societies and 3._______________
human environments they visit. We are increasingly familiar with 4. _______________
some of the worst effect of unthinking, unmanaged, sustainable 5. _______________
tourism: previous undeveloped coastal villages that have become 6. _______________
sprawling, charmless towns, their seas poisonous by sewage, 7. _______________
denuded of wildlife, their beaches stained by litter and empty 8. _______________
tubes of sun cream. Historic towns, their streets now choking 9. _______________
with traffic, their temples, churches and cathedrals seemingly 10. ______________
reduced to backdrop for holiday snaps that proclaim, “Been there,
Done that”. Some of the world’s richest environments were
bruised by the tourist onslaught, their most distinctive wildlife
driven to near-extinction, with wider environmental impacts
caused by the fuel-hungry transport systems used to take
holidaying travelers around the world and back again.

Exercise 2:
Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write
the corrections in the corresponding numbered boxes.
Earth is the only place we know of in the universe that can support human life. Yet
human activities are making the planet less fit to live by. As the western world carries on
consuming two-third of the world's resources while half of the world's population do so
just to stay alive, we are rapidly destroying the only resource we have by what all people
can survive and prosper. Everywhere fertile soil is neither built on or washed into the sea.
Renewable resources are exploited so much that they will never be able to recover
completely. We discharge pollutant into the atmosphere without any thought of the
consequences. As a result the planet's ability to support people is reducing at the very
time when rising human numbers and consumption are making increasing heavy
demands on it.
 Earth's natural resources are there for us to use. We need food, water, air, energy,
medicines, warmth, shelter and minerals to keep us feed, comfortable, healthy and active.
If we are sensitive in how we use the resources they will last indefinitely. But if we use
them wastefully and excessively they will soon run out and everyone will suffer.

No Mistakes Correction No Mistakes Correction

1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10

Exercise 3:
Read the following text which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write the
corrections in the corresponding numbered boxes.

LINE RAIN MAKING

0 When it rains, it doesn't always pour. During a typical storm, a comparative small
1 amount of the locking up moisture in each cloud reaches the ground like rain. So
2 the idea that human intervention a rain dance, perhaps - might encourage the sky to
3 give up a little additional water has been around in prehistoric times. More
4 recently, would-be rain-makers have attempted direct intervention, by lobbing
5 various chemicals out of aeroplanes in the effort to wring more rain from the
6 clouds, a practice knowing as 'cloud seeding'.
7 Yet such techniques, which were first developed in the 1940s, are notoriously
8 difficult to evaluate. It is hard to ascertain, for example, how much rain would
9 have fallen anyway. So, though much anecdotal evidence of the advantages of
1 cloud seeding, that has led to its adoption in more than 40 countries around the
0 world, as far as scientists are concerned, results are still inconclusive. That could
1 be about to changing. For the past three years researchers have been carrying out
1 the most extensive and rigorous evaluation to date of a revolutionarily new
1 technique which will substantially boost the volume of rainfall.
2 The preliminary finding of their experiments indicate that solid evidence of the
1 technique's effectiveness is now within the scientists' grasp.
3
1
4
1
5
1
6

Your answers:
Line Mistakes Corrections
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Exercise 4:
The passage below contains 10 mistakes. Underline the mistakes and write their
correct forms in the space provided in the column on the right. (0) has been done as an
example.
One rain day in 2012, I ducked into my local library of shelter and, (0) rain => rainy
for some reason, started looking at wills. I found one written by a (1) of => for
woman from Derby who had disguised her as a man and gone off to (2) her => herself
fight – and die – in the first world war. She had written her will (3) phonetic =>
phonetic, which made it easier for me to read as I’m dyslexic. That phonetically
was one reason why I connected with it. The other was the phrase: (4) The other =>
“Blood swept lands and seas of red where angels fear to tread.” It Another
leapt out at me, made me to think about the war’s death toll. With a (5) to think =>
bit of research, I discovered that there had been 888,246 British and think
Colonial military fatality. (6) fatality =>
I decided to represent that deaths through ceramic flowers, anything I fatalities
had first started making at university. Ceramics are transient and (7) that => those
fragile, like we are. They feel part of our very humane – societies (8) anything =>
have always been carbon-dated by their ceramics and pottery. I something
considered making roses, which symbolise sacrifice in Victorian (9) humane =>
times, but I settled on the poppy because of its links to war humanity
and remembrance. (10) symbolise
=> symbolised

Exercise 5:
There are ten errors in the following passage. Underline them in the text and correct
them in the numbered box.
Why do some people back on when faced with a threat, while others stand
up to it? When giving a difficult task, why do some people see it through, white
others give up? It all comes down to personalities. But where does that come from?
Some scientists believe that most of traits are inherited. The others take the opposite
view: personality, they say, is formed by our environment and parents do not pass
it on in their children. The truth is probably anywhere in between. Some traits are
clearly determined by your environment: However your genetic background, if you
grow up in Sweden, you'll probably speak Swedish. On the other hand, when it
comes to traits like the colour of your eyes or your blood type, it is clear that
genetics alone accounts for them. There are also traits which are partly inherited but
partly shaped by environment: your weight, and even your height and skin colour,
are examples. Of course, genetics and the environment together are not the total picture.
Your free will - your ability to take decisions - is also a factor in shaping your
identity, but how big a factor?
You'll have to make your own mind up for that!

No Mistakes Correction No Mistakes Correction

1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10

Exercise 6:
There are TEN mistakes in the passage below. Read the passage carefully, underline
the mistakes and write your corrections on the corresponding lines in the box for
Answers.
Answers
Each week Hilary Mullock, also known as Doctor Doppit, visiting London’s ____________
General Hospital. Carrying balloons and magic tricks better than a ____________
stethoscope, she administers her own special kind of medicine. Employed ____________
by the Theodora Children’s Trust, Hilary brings fun and laughter for the ____________
patients in the children’s wards, making a hospital staying a less difficult ____________
experience for these young patients. ____________
Having studied drama at university, Hilary later became interested in ____________
children’s theatre. Seeing an advert with a clown doctor, she knew she had ____________
founded the ideal job. Before taking up the position, Hilary had to complete ____________
four weeks of training, being instructed in balloon modeling and magic ____________
tricks. ____________
According to a spokesperson for the Theodora Children’s Trust, ____________
hospitalized children, having been excluding from their normal day-to-day ____________
routine and the family environment, are likely to be frightening and ____________
homesick. Clown doctors like Hilary has a valuable part to play in helping ____________
them forget their problems for a while. Humour, it has been seen, has a ____________
positively impact on health. In fact, certain chemicals produced in the body ____________
by laughter have even been shown to act as natural painkillers. Laughter ____________
really is the best medicine, it seems. ____________

Exercise 7:
Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write
the corrections in the corresponding numbered boxes.
LINE TEXT
1 Sociologists believe groups form in two basic ways. One is through social
2 cohesion, in which is when people come together base on interpersonal
3 attraction, or in other words, when they admire one another’s personality
4 traits. On contrast, other groups form through social identity, which is
5 centred round a person’s social category. This involves economical status,
6 profession, ethnicity, and other such factors. Furthermore, with social
7 identity, it is important for the individual to include certain people from
8 their group. First of all, they feel distinctly different from other groups,
9 which strengthens their own identity. A third, less common group, known
10 as an emergent group, forms as opposed to some type of sudden event,
11 such as a disaster. Accordingly, these individuals had no prior knowledge
12 of each other and may not possess mutually attractive personnel traits or
13 sharing identities, they can form strong lasting bonds nonetheless.
14
 Your answers:
Line Mistakes Corrections
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Exercise 8:
Identify the mistakes and correct them in the following passage.

Tony had always wanted to explore the foothills of Himalayas. So when he was
offered an early retirement package by his firm, he decided to take up advantage of the
opportunity. First he needed to get really fit, so he spent a month to train in the Lake
District. When he could run up Buttermere Fell without stopping, he considered he was
ready. He booked a trip with a well known trekking company and flew out to Katmandu,
the capital of Nepal. His group were planning to trek in the Annapurna region, but
unfortunately the Nepalese was beginning to get worried about the amount of damage
being made to their ancient mountains by the constant pummeling of climbers feet. So
they temporarily suspended permission for foreigners to climb or use the footpaths in
the area. The group leader was very apologetic, but he laid on rafting on River Trisuli and
sightseeing in the capital.
After a few days, the authorities lifted their ban, and Tony was able to trek through
some of the world’s most beautiful sceneries, with breathtaken views of the Mount
Everest and Kanhenjunga. At night, the group accommodated in simple village rooms
and ate with the Nepalese.
Most of the group were experience trekkers than Tony and several of them had
visited this region before. All in all, Tony reckoned it was the most exciting experience
he had ever had, and vowed to return to Nepal at the very first opportunity.

No Mistakes Correction No Mistakes Correction

1 6
2 7
3 8
 4 9
5 10

Exercise 9:
Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write
the corrections in the corresponding numbered boxes.

Russia election: Vladimir Putin wins by big margin

line 1 Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for other six years, after securing an expected
line 2 victory in Sunday's president election.
line 3 Mr Putin, who has ruled the country as neither president or prime minister
line 4 since 1999, got more than 76% of the vote, official results shows. The main
line 5 opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race. Addressed a
line 6 rally in Moscow, Mr Putin said voters had "recognised the achievements of the
line 7 last few years".
line 8 Speaking to reporters after the results announced, he laughed at a question
line 8 about running again in another six years. "What you are saying is a bit funny.
line 10 Do you think that I will stay here until I'm 100 years old? No!" he said. The
line 11 scale of victory - which had been widely predicted - appears to be a markedly
line 12 increase in his share of the vote from 2012, when he won 64%. Mr Putin's
line 13 nearest competitor, millionaire communist Pavel Grudinin, received about
line 14 12%. The race also included Ksenia Sobchak, a formal reality TV host, and
line 15 veteran nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky - they got less than 2% and about 6%
line 16 respectedly. Mr Putin's campaign team said it was an "incredible victory".
line 17 "The percentage that we have just seen speaks for itself. It's a mandate which
line 18 Putin needs for future decisions, and he has a lot of them to do," a spokesman
line 19 told Russia's Interfax.
(Adapted from http://www.bbc.com/news)

Line Mistake Correction

Example 1 Other Another
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Exercise 10:
Each line of the following passage has one mistake related to either grammar or
vocabulary usage. Find and correct them.
Air pollution is a cause for ill – health in human beings. It a lot of countries,
there are laws limited the amount of smoke which factories can produce. Because there
isn't enough information on the amount of smoke in the atmosphere, doctors have
proved that air pollution makes lung cancer. The gases from the exhausts of cars have
also risen air pollution in most cities. The lead in petrol produces a poisoned gas which
often collects in busy streets surrounding by high buildings. Children who live in areas
where there is a lot of lead in the atmosphere cannot think as quick as other children
and they are clumsy where they use their hands. There are long-term effects of
pollution. If the gases in the atmosphere continues to increase, the earth's climate will
become warmer. A lot of ice near the Poles may water and may cause serious floods.
No Mistakes Correction No Mistakes Correction
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10