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I am just practising some English grammar related questions, here is the question I am confused about : question: Identify the one bold word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct.

1) In supply-side economics, a balanced budget results from reducing in government spending.

A. in

B. results

C. reducing in

D. spending

Its correct answer is D. spending. But why should we select "spending" as wrong word that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct. what's the logic or rule behind it?

2) Alligators are not long on the endangered list.

A. are

B. not long

C. on

D. the endangered

Its correct answer is B. not long. Why?

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    I suspect you have have mistranscribed answer #1C because the error in that sentence is "reducing". In #2, a possible error is the word "are". But these tests are terrible, because they assume a dominant context will always leap out at the reader, and that's often subjective.
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 12, 2015 at 12:52
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    You could say "...results from reducing government spending" or "...results from reductions in government spending".
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 12, 2015 at 13:32

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1) In supply-side economics, a balanced budget results from reducing in government spending.

D. spending

Now this is not a good question because it assumes you have a knowledge of economics; In supply-side economics it is taxation that is viewed as an evil so I think what they are wanting the end to be changed to is, "... a balanced budget results from (a reduction) in government taxation."

2) Alligators are not long on the endangered list.

B. not long

Its correct answer is B. not long. "not long" serves no function in this sentence; If you delete it all together we have, "Alligators are on the endangered list.", which makes sense. Yes you could change not long to another phrase and have it work but in this case the just wanted it to be deleted. This is not a good question.

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