Read the passage and answer the questions:
It is with the gravest import that we relay intelligence from the Continent, where the machinations of foreign Powers betoken a perturbation most grievous to the tranquillity of Europe. Reports reaching our office, albeit through channels of dubious veracity, intimate that certain Ministers of State, long disaffected, have entered into clandestine parley, thereby imperilling the precarious Peace recently brokered at Amiens. The populace, though desirous of repose after protracted tumult, remains uneasy; their apprehensions stoked by pamphleteers whose incendiary declamations find ready purchase amongst the credulous.
Meanwhile, at Westminster, the Commons are engaged in fervid debate upon the propriety of augmenting naval armaments, lest perfidious designs render our shores vulnerable. It is the sentiment of many learned gentlemen that vigilance, tempered with prudence, is the surest safeguard against the perfidy of hostile ambition. Further dispatches are awaited with no small degree of trepidation.
Identify the grammatical role of 'whereby' in the phrase 'a clandestine parley was conducted, whereby grievous slanders were sown.'
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Correct Answer: Adverb
Explanation:
In the sentence:
'A clandestine parley was conducted, whereby grievous slanders were sown.'
The word 'whereby' means 'by which' or 'through which.' It introduces the manner or means by which something happened. Grammatically, whereby is classified as a relative adverb.
It does not act as a preposition.
It does not act as a conjunction.
It does not replace a noun like a pronoun.
Therefore, its grammatical role is Adverb.