When I was a child, I used to collect of sugar wrappers. My mother asked to everyone she worked with for to keep any wrappers they got, especially of when they were travelling for abroad. Soon I had lots of sugar wrappers, and for a while I was very proud of my collection. However, as I grew older I got bored with it, but for at least the next ten years, people still kept giving to me sugar wrappers.
Here is another short text with some errors, this time with errors in using articles. Again, decide if each article is necessary.

Although lots of the people go straight to the university after leaving the school, nowadays a 'gap year', i.e. a year off, is a quite usual. The people spend the year travelling round the world, or doing a voluntary work.

Explanation

people
We don't use an article with plural nouns when we are talking in general.

university, school
We don't use an article with certain places (also hospital, church, prison).

a 'gap' year, a year off
We use the indefinite article with singular countable nouns.

quite usual
Usual is an adjective, not a noun.

spend the year
We use the definite article with previously mentioned items.

the world
We use the definite article with unique objects (also the sun, the moon).

voluntary work
We don't use an article with uncountable nouns, like "work".

Explanation
1. "like something" means "similar to something"
3. Children are plural, so you cannot use "one".
6. "having been" is possible - passive, but "having being" is always impossible
7. Here "as" would mean "because", but the sentences are already joined with "and"
9. My mother carried on as if nothing had happened when my father got up and played the violin, not before. So "had carried on" would not be correct.
11. "complained bitterly" or "complained bitterly to us"
13. "ask someone", not "ask to someone"
15. "He had been suffered" would be passive. But he had suffered...
16. We have "was" in the next line, so we cannot use it here as well!

18. If you are stopped from doing something, you are prevented from doing it. He had stopped having those dreams - nobody prevented him!


Explanation
1. You don't go to somewhere. You go somewhere.
3. "like bark" would never be correct - "like to bark" or “like barking" would be possible.
5. "have considered" would be possible, but here "consider" does not have -ed.
6. "were not" might be possible, because the dog did not consider whether they were thieves...
8. "Approach" is not followed by "to".
10. "Tiredness" is uncountable, so it cannot have "a".
11. "care for" means "love" or "like". Here, "I did not care" means "it did not matter to me".
12. "have been given" would be passive.
13. "the house" or "my house" but not "the my house"! There can only be one extra word in a line, so the extra word must be “my”.
Cont'd...
Explanation cont'd
14. " I fell into such a deep sleep one night that I did not wake up..." would be possible.
16. "… that someone had been in the house" is "it" - you don't need both
18. "still" would mean he was waiting, expecting to hear something

19. You "ask someone", not "ask to someone".
In this lesson you have:
Gained familiarity with the error correction task
Seen what kinds of words are likely to be included as extra words
Developed a strategy to help you do this task
The next lesson focuses on part 5 of the Use of English paper. It develops your familiarity with the word building exercise through a series of graded activities.