Which part of the sentence shows an improper usage of the articles 'a', 'an' or 'the'?

(A)

The answer is OPTION 1

The usage of "a" before "few books" is incorrect. The correct usage would be "The few books".

The article "a" is used before singular countable nouns that are non-specific. In this case, the noun "books" is specific because the phrase "that the students had" identifies the particular books being referred to. Therefore, we should use the definite article "the" before "books".

Here is the corrected sentence:

The few books that the students had were all in a pathetic condition.