Q&A - P4 English

[smurf28]

Hi grammartots

thank for your explaination

[grammartots]

smurf28:

Hi grammartots

thank for your explaination

You're welcome. Hope it helped

[grammartots]

CayennePepper:

grammartots, many thanks for your response

It's really frustrating that there seems to be various acceptabe answers for S&T! Wish there're clearer guidelines.

Having more than one acceptable answer is fine, because sometimes there's more than one way to rewrite (transform) the given sentence or sentences. What's bad is when not enough flexibility is exercised (by tutors or teachers) and a perfectly legitimate answer is marked wrong. I've come across cases like that, yes, even for exams.

Yes, having clearer guidelines would really help.

[HAPPYH]

grammartots:

CayennePepper:

Oops, these didn't get copied earlier.


4. The crowd cheered wildly when they caught a glimpse of their favourite singer.
(a) As soon as the crowd caught a glimpse of their favourite singer, they cheered wildly.
Or
(b) As soon as they caught a glimpse of their favourite singer, the crowd cheered wildly.

5. Mary was determined to complete the obstacle course. She was afraid of heights.
(a) Despite Mary's fear of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.
Or
(b) Despite her fear of heights, Mary was determined to complete the obstacle course.

All the answers sound right to me!

You may get different opinions from different people with the questions you gave, because with Synthesis and Transformation, sometimes it's not so clear-cut whether an answer that changes the original meaning only slightly is acceptable.

Looking at example (4), I would say both are acceptable. The difference between the two lies in whether you have an anaphoric (backward) or cataphoric (forward) reference. Some people prefer version 4a (anaphoric) because there it may be easier to understand without the undefined pronoun \"they\".

As for (5), I would prefer to use the original word \"afraid\" instead of \"fear\", because there's less chance of making a mistake. You see, with an exam like PSLE, the student doesn't get a chance to look at how his or her paper is marked. And if his or her answer deviates from the agreed answer or answers, then you never know whether he's going to get any point for that question.

So I would go for version (5c) below:

(5c) Despite the fact that Mary was afraid of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.

Can we say like this if they do not give the word Despite?

Although Mary was afraid of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.

thank you

[Skyed]

HAPPYH:

grammartots:

[quote=\"CayennePepper\"]Oops, these didn't get copied earlier.


4. The crowd cheered wildly when they caught a glimpse of their favourite singer.
(a) As soon as the crowd caught a glimpse of their favourite singer, they cheered wildly.
Or
(b) As soon as they caught a glimpse of their favourite singer, the crowd cheered wildly.

5. Mary was determined to complete the obstacle course. She was afraid of heights.
(a) Despite Mary's fear of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.
Or
(b) Despite her fear of heights, Mary was determined to complete the obstacle course.

All the answers sound right to me!

You may get different opinions from different people with the questions you gave, because with Synthesis and Transformation, sometimes it's not so clear-cut whether an answer that changes the original meaning only slightly is acceptable.

Looking at example (4), I would say both are acceptable. The difference between the two lies in whether you have an anaphoric (backward) or cataphoric (forward) reference. Some people prefer version 4a (anaphoric) because there it may be easier to understand without the undefined pronoun \"they\".

As for (5), I would prefer to use the original word \"afraid\" instead of \"fear\", because there's less chance of making a mistake. You see, with an exam like PSLE, the student doesn't get a chance to look at how his or her paper is marked. And if his or her answer deviates from the agreed answer or answers, then you never know whether he's going to get any point for that question.

So I would go for version (5c) below:

(5c) Despite the fact that Mary was afraid of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.

Can we say like this if they do not give the word Despite?

Although Mary was afraid of heights, she was determined to complete the obstacle course.

thank you[/quote]Seems correct.

[KRR]

Hi,


Can you please help me with the following grammar questions.
1. _________ more plant life will be wiped out through Man’s irresponsible actions unless we take action against further environmental damage.
(Some, Much, Many, Hugely) Given ans: Much
Why the answer cannot be 'Many"?

2. "That is a lot ______ T-shirts than we had originally projected to sell to the school!" he protested, after looking at the sales figure.
(fewer, less, few, lesser) Given ans: fewer

Why the answer cannot be ‘lesser’?

3. If you _________ faster, you will reach there in time.
(walk, walks, walking, walked) Given ans: walked
My answer is ‘walk’. Which one is correct and why?

4. The courageous boy ________ on the thief.
(will spring, springs, sprang, spring) Given ans: sprang

There is no word in the question that indicates that the sentence must be in past tense, then why is 'sprang; the answer.

5. Science is a subject that has always been ________ of moral dilemmas.
(fuller, filled, full, fill) Given ans: full
Please explain why?

Thank you very much for the time and effort that you would take to reply these questions.

KRR

[Skyed]

Can you please help me with the following grammar questions.

1. _________ more plant life will be wiped out through Man's irresponsible actions unless we take action against further environmental damage.
(Some, Much, Many, Hugely) Given ans: Much
Why the answer cannot be 'Many\"?

Cannot be many because many refers to countable things. There's too much plant life in the world to be counted.

EDIT: However if the question was ______ more plants will be wiped out... then the answer is many.

2. \"That is a lot ______ T-shirts than we had originally projected to sell to the school!\" he protested, after looking at the sales figure.
(fewer, less, few, lesser) Given ans: fewer

Why the answer cannot be 'lesser'?

Lesser refers to uncountable things. Like, you can't say I had lesser points than you for math. You say I had fewer points than you for math because fewer is for things that can be counted.


3. If you _________ faster, you will reach there in time.
(walk, walks, walking, walked) Given ans: walked
My answer is 'walk'. Which one is correct and why?

I think walk is correct. IMO, walked would only be correct if it was \"If you had walked faster, you would have reached there in time\"

4. The courageous boy ________ on the thief.
(will spring, springs, sprang, spring) Given ans: sprang

There is no word in the question that indicates that the sentence must be in past tense, then why is 'sprang; the answer.

I think the past tense is implied because the fact that you say the boy is courageous means that he must have done something to make you say that.


5. Science is a subject that has always been ________ of moral dilemmas.
(fuller, filled, full, fill) Given ans: full
Please explain why?

Cannot be fuller because you're not comparing to anything. \"filled - of\" doesn't make sense, for it to be filled has to be filled with. And fill of is wrong because it's in present tense I think. But yeah full is correct.

Thank you very much for the time and effort that you would take to reply these questions.

[KRR]

Skyed, thank you so much for your help.


KRR

[Skyed]

KRR:

Skyed, thank you so much for your help.


KRR

Welcome

[HAPPYH]

Skyed:

Can you please help me with the following grammar questions.



2. \"That is a lot ______ T-shirts than we had originally projected to sell to the school!\" he protested, after looking at the sales figure.
(fewer, less, few, lesser) Given ans: fewer
Why the answer cannot be 'lesser'?

Lesser refers to uncountable things. Like, you can't say I had lesser points than you for math. You say I had fewer points than you for math because fewer is for things that can be counted.


Thank you very much for the time and effort that you would take to reply these questions.

T-shirts are countable nouns so fewer is the correct choice.