Q&A - P4 English

[Mdm Koh]

Mychildren:

I have one question below:


The magician made his assistant _____________ into thin air.

1) disappear 2) disappeared 3) disappears 4) disappearing

Could anyone advise me the answer and explain to me why that is your choice?

This is a frequently tested question in the grammar section of exams. The answer is (1) disappear, which is an infinitive without \"to\". As primary students may find it hard to understand what that means, I normally ask them to commit this list to memory:
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/infinitive_without_to.htm

If they encounter any of the given situations, the answer is the one without the \"-ed\", \"-ing\" and \"-s\".

[Mychildren]

Thanks, Mdm Koh.


I do not know how to explain to my kid. With your link, at least I can ask him to memorize. I am really very grateful for your kind sharing! Thank you, once again!

[Michaelia0816]

Can you explain why, I had already remember the list before, but my answer is 2. The word"made" made me thinks 2 the answer!

[Dino mummy]

Hi

Need help, pls

Qns:The cat ______ Jamie saved yesterday belongs to Mrs Watson
MCQ: (1) who (2) which (3) where (4) whose
Ans (1) is wrong…

Qns: "There was a knock on the door just now. Who ______ on us at this late hour?"James wondered.
MCQ: (1) call (2) calls (3) is calling (4) has called
Ans (4) is wrong…

Qns: The gentleman _________ you were talking to was my former teacher.
MCQ: 1) who (2) whom (3) whose (4) which
Ans (1) is wrong …

Both my boy and myself are stuck…dun noe why the ans he chose was wrong. Pls help to provide answer as well as explanation. Thanks.

[BY mummy]

Dino mummy:

Hi

Need help, pls

Qns:The cat ______ Jamie saved yesterday belongs to Mrs Watson
MCQ: (1) who (2) which (3) where (4) whose
Ans (1) is wrong...

the answer is 2. who is refering to human, but now we are refering to the cat. so we should use \"which\"

Qns: \"There was a knock on the door just now. Who ______ on us at this late hour?\"James wondered.
MCQ: (1) call (2) calls (3) is calling (4) has called
Ans (4) is wrong...

ans is no.3


Qns: The gentleman _________ you were talking to was my former teacher.
MCQ: 1) who (2) whom (3) whose (4) which
Ans (1) is wrong ....
ans is 2.
Both my boy and myself are stuck...dun noe why the ans he chose was wrong. Pls help to provide answer as well as explanation. Thanks.

[purple05]

Qn: Do give ___ sufficient time to rest so you will not feel tired.

1) herself 2)yourself 3)himself 4)ourselves
Qn: Peter said he ___ to check the bonnet of his car urgently.
1) need 2)needs 3)needed 4)is needing

Ans sheet : 4 & 3. How to explain?

[Dino mummy]

BY mummy:

Dino mummy:

Hi

Need help, pls

Qns:The cat ______ Jamie saved yesterday belongs to Mrs Watson
MCQ: (1) who (2) which (3) where (4) whose
Ans (1) is wrong...

the answer is 2. who is refering to human, but now we are refering to the cat. so we should use \"which\"

Qns: \"There was a knock on the door just now. Who ______ on us at this late hour?\"James wondered.
MCQ: (1) call (2) calls (3) is calling (4) has called
Ans (4) is wrong...

ans is no.3


Qns: The gentleman _________ you were talking to was my former teacher.
MCQ: 1) who (2) whom (3) whose (4) which
Ans (1) is wrong ....
ans is 2.
Both my boy and myself are stuck...dun noe why the ans he chose was wrong. Pls help to provide answer as well as explanation. Thanks.

Thanks, My mummy!
I always thot to use \"who\" for animals too....

[grammartots]

purple05:

Qn: Do give ___ sufficient time to rest so you will not feel tired.

1) herself 2)yourself 3)himself 4)ourselves
Qn: Peter said he ___ to check the bonnet of his car urgently.
1) need 2)needs 3)needed 4)is needing

Ans sheet : 4 & 3. How to explain?

Seems strange that option 4 is the answer for the first question. I would pick option 2 as the answer since \"yourself\" refers to the \"you\".

Option (3) is correct for the next question because it's a reported speech. The corresponding direct speech is:

\"I need to check the bonnet of my car urgently,\" Peter said.

When someone else reports what Peter said, he or she needs to \"backshift\" the time -- from present to past, past to past perfect, present perfect to past perfect.

The present tense verb in Peter's speech is \"need\", so we change it to \"needed\" in the reported (indirect) speech. We also need to change the pronouns \"I\" to \"he\" and \"my\" to \"his\".

[grammartots]

Mychildren:

I have one question below:


The magician made his assistant _____________ into thin air.

1) disappear 2) disappeared 3) disappears 4) disappearing

Could anyone advise me the answer and explain to me why that is your choice?

Michaelia0816:

Can you explain why, I had already remember the list before, but my answer is 2. The word\"made\" made me thinks 2 the answer!

Yes, because of the past tense \"made\" (or \"heard\", \"saw\"), many students tend to choose the past tense \"disappeared\".

The quickest way (as pointed out by Mdm Koh) is to learn the small set of causative (e.g. make) and sense words (hear, see).

For example:

(1) The teacher made him stand. (not stands or standing or stood)
(2) We heard a girl cry/crying. (not cries or cried)

The other way is to use the concept of a clause's finiteness.

In sentence (2) above, the clause [a girl cry] is non-finite.

A non-finite clause is characterised by verbs that do not carry tense. These verbs are usually the bare infinitives or the -ing forms.

We can test a clause's finiteness by replacing \"the girl\" with \"he\" and \"him\":

(3) We heard her crying. (correct)
(4) *We heard she crying. (wrong)

Notice that when we replace the object pronoun \"her\" with the subject pronoun \"she\", the sentence becomes ungrammatical. So, [her crying] is a non-finite clause.

Now consider the next sentence:

(5) We heard that your son studies/studied in a univesity. (not study or studying)

Notice that, in contrast to sentences (1) and (2), the verb after \"your son\" can be \"studies\" or \"studied\" but not \"study\" or \"studying\".

Why? The reason is that the clause [that your son studied in a university] is a finite clause. A finite verb clause carries tense:

(6) She writes home every day (finite clause -- present tense verb)
(7) She wrote home yesterday (finite clause -- past tense verb)

Again, we can test with \"he\" and \"him\":

(8) We heard that he studied in a university. (correct)
(9) *We heard that him studied in a university. (wrong)

Notice that \"he\" is ok but not \"him\". That tells us that [that he studied in a university] is a finite clause.

So, to summarise, to decide on the form of the verb after a word such as \"made\" or \"heard\", look at the clause after those words. If it's non-finite, then the choices are:

A) If the verb is a causative verb (e.g. made), then you use the bare infinintive (no s, ed or ing) - \"disappear\" in the question posted.
B) If the verb is a sense verb (e.g. heard, saw), then you normally have a choice of the bare infinitive or the -ing form of the verb.

[Michaelia0816]

You meant sensing verb, I forgotten it!