The teachers … our poor performance in the examinations.

Analyze the question The sentence is "The teachers ...... our poor performance in the examinations." We need the option that is grammatically correct and idiomatic.

Concept: "discuss" is a transitive verb In English, discuss takes a direct object and needs no preposition. Adding "about" or "on" after it is a very common error in Nigerian English.

• Correct: "They discussed the problem."
• Wrong: "They discussed about the problem."

Step-by-step elimination

• A. are discussing on: the preposition "on" is unnecessary after "discuss", so this is wrong.
• B. were discussing about: "about" is unnecessary, so this is wrong.
• C. had discussed on: "on" is again unnecessary, so this is wrong.
• D. were discussing: this is correct. The verb takes the object "our poor performance" directly, with no extra preposition. The past continuous tense fits the context.

Answer: D. were discussing

Exam tip: Remember that discuss is like marry, enter, reach and attend, which are verbs that never take a preposition after them. You wouldn't say "marry with her" or "enter into the room" (in the sense of simply going in). Whenever you see "discuss about" or "discuss on" in an option, eliminate it immediately.