Which of the following sentences use the collective nouns correctly?
(A) At Riya’s wedding, the guests were served an array of dishes from every corner of India.
(B) The music teacher ended the farewell party with a peal of old Hindi film songs.
(C) A new sports complex with a swimming pool and three badminton courts has opened near our school.
(D) Most of the machineries at the rice mill in Karnal run on solar power.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (A) and (C) only
(A) At Riya’s wedding, the guests were served an array of dishes from every corner of India. — Correct.
- An array is a large and impressive range of things of one kind, such as dishes.
(B) The music teacher ended the farewell party with a peal of old Hindi film songs. — Incorrect.
- A peal is the loud ringing of bells, or a loud burst of laughter or thunder.
- Parts of several songs sung or played one after another are a medley.
- Correct form: The music teacher ended the farewell party with a medley of old Hindi film songs.
(C) A new sports complex with a swimming pool and three badminton courts has opened near our school. — Correct.
- A complex is a group of buildings put up in one place for one purpose, such as sports or shopping.
(D) Most of the machineries at the rice mill in Karnal run on solar power. — Incorrect.
- Machinery is a noun that cannot be counted, so it never takes -s.
- It always takes a singular verb, as in “the machinery runs”.
- Correct form: Most of the machinery at the rice mill in Karnal runs on solar power.