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GATE 2024 XH2 (English) – Question 14

Reasoning and Comprehension · Verbal reasoning and comprehension · 1 mark · Multiple choice

Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

  1. One day, I’ll write a book, ‘I said’. Not just a thriller but a real book, about real people.
  2. ‘One day I’ll write a book’, I said, ‘not just a thriller, but a real book, about real people.’
  3. ‘One day I’ll write a book’, I said. ‘Not just a thriller but, a real book, about real people’.
  4. ‘One day I’ll write a book’, I said, not just a thriller, but a real book, about real people.’

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (B) ‘One day I’ll write a book’, I said, ‘not just a thriller, but a real book, about real people.’

Explanation

In B the two spoken parts are in quotation marks, the speech tag “I said” is set off by commas, and the quotation is closed properly. A has the tag in the wrong place, C has a stray comma after “but”, and D leaves the second part of the speech outside the quotes.