He paid attention ___ the instructions given.

• A. In
• B. To
• C. On
• D. For

Answer: (B)

The key idea here is the common collocation pay attention to. When you want someone to focus on something, English uses the preposition to after attention. So in this sentence, the thing being focused on is the instructions given, and the correct preposition is to, giving paid attention to the instructions given. The other prepositions don’t fit the usual pattern: in would not be the standard way to link attention to a thing, on is generally used with different verbs like focus on, and for doesn’t work with this phrasal verb.