Sentence Rearrangement
🔒 Log in to trackTime-sequence chains
🔒 Log in to trackStory and history jumbles follow the clock. Use time words first, then tenses, then cause and effect. Number the events in order, and the letter string writes itself.
Time markers and where they sit
Story, incident and history jumbles run on the clock. These markers fix the order.
| Marker | Position signal |
|---|---|
| One day, Long ago, In 1947, Last winter | earliest event |
| Soon, Then, After that, Meanwhile | next events |
| By midnight, By dawn, Within a week | result time of an ongoing event |
| The next morning, The following day | day boundary |
| Now, Today, These days | present contrast, near the end |
| Ever since, Since then | after the turning point |
Tip: Build the timeline before you touch the options. Number the events, for example: flood, homes flooded, villagers moved, boats ferried, rescue arrived. Then write the letters in that order.
Three layers of time
A story gives time clues at three levels. Use as many as you need.
- Markers: dates and time words (Last December, That night, By dawn, Today).
- Tense: past perfect (had left) for earlier events, simple past for the main events, present for the end.
- Cause and effect: the fire must start before the engines arrive.
Markers are the most reliable. Use tense when markers are missing. Use cause and effect when tense does not help.
Relative markers need an anchor
Eleven years later, A few days later and On the eighth day count from an earlier event. They cannot come first. Find the event they count from. Place them after it.
Eleven years later needs In 2008. The restart needs half-time.
By-phrases close a phase
By dawn, the flames had been put out. By the final whistle, we had won.
A by-phrase shows where a stretch of action ended. So it follows the actions inside that stretch. Wrong options often put it first.
Watch: By midnight caps the flooding. It comes after the flooding sentence, never before.
Flashbacks in the past perfect
When Anil reached the station, the platform was empty. The express had left ten minutes earlier. He had missed it because he had overslept.
The past perfect parts explain the scene. The story then returns to the simple past. Keep the flashback parts together, straight after the scene they explain. A past-perfect event placed after the simple-past event it caused is wrong.
Process and instruction passages
Recipes and application steps use First, Next or Then, After that, Finally. When markers are missing, ask what each step needs. You cannot book an appointment before you register. Officials cannot check documents before the appointment exists.
Biography and history
Lives run in date order. Also look for pointer words. There she earned a doctorate needs the part that names the place. Her second mission needs the first one. Exam biographies skip years, so use first, second, later and then as well as dates.
Question types you will see
Each type: how to recognise it, the method step by step, and one question to try.
Explicit time and date markers
Parts carry dates or time words: In 2008, Eleven years later, In August 2023, As soon as they reached.
Underline every time word.
Put fixed dates in order.
Attach each relative marker after its anchor.
Place unmarked parts by cause and effect.
The markers put the events in order before you read the options.
P: Eleven years later, its lander crashed on the surface. Q: In 2008, an Indian probe reached the moon. R: Scientists studied the failure closely. S: In 2023, a third mission landed safely. Choose the order of PQRS.
Show solutionHide solution
Q is the earliest date.
P counts from 2008, so it follows Q.
R studies the crash, so it follows P.
S has the latest date.
QPRS
By-phrases and day boundaries
One part begins with By dawn, By the final whistle or By midnight, or with That night or The next morning.
Find the actions the by-phrase sums up.
Place the by-phrase after them.
Place day-boundary parts after everything from the day before.
Check that S6 continues from the last part.
A by-phrase describes the result of the actions before it, so it cannot come first.
S1: A fire broke out late on Saturday night. P: Shopkeepers rushed out with buckets. Q: Engines arrived within twenty minutes. R: By dawn, the flames were out. S: Later that morning, officials counted the damage. Choose the order of PQRS.
Show solutionHide solution
People nearby act first: P.
The engines arrive next: Q.
By dawn sums up the firefighting: R.
Later that morning comes after dawn: S.
PQRS
Tense as a clock (past perfect flashback)
Parts mix had + V3 with simple past and present. There are few time words.
Past perfect parts are earlier events. Keep them together in order.
Simple past parts continue the main story.
Present-tense parts (Today...) come last.
Tense shows the order of events even without time words.
S1: The old fort stood silent. P: Over time, the trade route moved elsewhere. Q: Today only tourists climb its walls. R: A king had built it on a hill. S: Armies had attacked it many times. Choose the order of PQRS.
Show solutionHide solution
R and S are past perfect: they come first.
R (built) comes before S (attacked).
P is simple past: it continues the story.
Q is present: it comes last.
RSPQ
Process steps
The passage explains how to do something, such as apply for a passport, with First, Next, Then, Finally or steps that depend on each other.
Use First and Finally to fix the ends.
For steps without markers, ask what each step needs before it.
A step that mentions something (the appointment) follows the step that creates it.
Each step depends on the one before it, so the order is forced.
P: At the appointment, officials check the documents. Q: The applicant first registers on the portal. R: A police verification follows. S: After paying the fee, the applicant books an appointment. Choose the order of PQRS.
Show solutionHide solution
Q is first: register.
S comes next: pay and book.
P needs the appointment, so it follows S.
R follows the check.
QSPR
Biography with pointer words
Parts tell one person's life. Some start with There, Her second... or Later.
Find the pointer words (There, second, later).
Find the part each one needs.
Use dates or first, second, then to place the rest.
Exam biographies skip years, so pointer words are more reliable than dates.
S1: Rekha grew up in a small town in Kerala. P: There she earned a doctorate in marine biology. Q: After school, she left for Australia. R: Her first research trip took her to the Andaman Sea. S: Her second trip went much deeper. Choose the order of PQRS.
Show solutionHide solution
Q names the country.
P says There, so it follows Q.
R is the first trip.
S is the second trip, so it follows R.
QPRS
Shortcuts that save time
Write the four to six events as a numbered list. Then map the numbers to the letters. The string writes itself.
P: Villagers were moved to boats. Q: Heavy rain flooded the homes. R: By midnight, the water had reached the roofs. Order?
Show solutionHide solution
Rain and flooding come first: Q.
Then the rescue action: P.
By midnight caps the flooding phase.
QRP
Past perfect is earlier. Past continuous is background. Simple past is the main story line. Use tense when time words are missing.
By midnight and By dawn close the phase they describe. They follow the event chain and never open it.
Mistakes to avoid
Where most students lose marks on this subtopic.
Placing Now or Today early in a story that ends in the present.
Put present-time parts last.
Ordering the parts by how they are listed.
Order them by when the events happened.
Ignoring The next morning.
Treat it as a day boundary. Put it after everything from the day before.
Letting a result-time phrase such as By dawn open the chain.
Put it after the actions it sums up.
Putting a past-perfect flashback after the event it explains.
Keep flashback parts together, straight after the scene.
Quick revision
Read this the night before the exam.
Use markers first, then tense, then cause and effect.
Eleven years later and a few days later need an earlier event before them.
By-phrases come after the actions they sum up.
Past perfect means flashback. Keep those parts together.
Processes: each step needs the step before it.
Present-time parts (Today, Now) come last.
Practice: 12 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Every answer has a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 12 questions
Suggested time 9 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.