vidhyalog:

Niedino:

[quote=\"vidhyalog\"]They did not take the cash in the bag.

None of _________________________________________

Son's answer : None of the cash in the bag was taken by them.

Answer key : None of them took the cash in the bag.

TIA.

Hi Vidhyalog,

I would accept the answer key's answer as your son's answer has changed the voice of the sentence from active to passive. You should not change too much of a sentence's meaning & form in synthesis / transformation unless required to.

Hope it helps!

Niedino

I just realised - we cannot say none of the cash. It can be none of the notes.
So that would also make my son's answer wrong.[/quote]Why can't we say 'none of the cash'? 'None' can be followed by an uncountable noun.

Rgds
R

vidhyalog:

Hi -


How do we treat should in reported speech?

eg. \"You should concentrate on developing your skills instead of picking on each other,\" Mr Raj reprimanded the team members.

Mr. Raj told __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

Should the answer be:

Mr. Raj told the team members they should concentrate on developing their skills instead of picking on each other.

or

Mr Raj told the team member to concentrate on developing their skills instead of picking on each other.

TIA

Go for the second solution [told + infinitive]

Rgds
R

blitz:

Can I just confirm this: Any words in between commas, can be omitted?


A question like:
Betty, as well as her sisters, _is_ going to watch a movie.
Am I right?

Yes. The expression within the commas is considered non-restrictive, that is not essential to identifying the subject of the sentence. In your example, 'Betty' is the subject.

Expressions within commas beginning with 'as well as', 'together with', 'in addition to' etc are not considered part of the subject nor necessary to identify the subject.

Rgds
R

ms_lim:

ridcully:

[quote=\"ms_lim\"]Please help to explain:


1) Is it acceptable to write \"recognised\" instead of \"recognized\"?
2) Please ________ your work to the leader.
(a) hand up
(b) hand in

1) Use 'recognised', which is British spelling.
2) Ans (b).

Rgds
R

Dear Ridcully,

Thank you. Can you help to explain when do we use hand up?[/quote]Not sure. It could be American English meaning 'hand in'. 'Hand in' means to submit something. It could also be a Singlish corruption of 'hang up'. Thankfully, I speak neither American English nor Singlish.

I am now hanging up my mouse for the rest of the day and so wish to hand over to others to answer queries. Everyone, please hang in there and do not hand in your chips: there is light at the end of the PSLE tunnel but do not hang around for it in case you are left with unpleasant memories to hand on to future generations.

Rgds
R

chrisu:

Thank you teacher Ridcully. Yes after PSLE, my daughter and I are going to continue to buck up on our English.

The high standard of Secondary English, especially with its emphasis on comprehension, vocabulary and compositional writing, comes as a bit of a shock to many!


Good luck to your daughter in the PSLE.

Rgds
R

ms_lim:

Please help to explain:


1) Is it acceptable to write \"recognised\" instead of \"recognized\"?
2) Please ________ your work to the leader.
(a) hand up
(b) hand in

1) Use 'recognised', which is British spelling.
2) Ans (b).

Rgds
R

vidhyalog:

ridcully:

[quote=\"P5G\"]66. Sarah does not want to study medicine as much as she does law.


________ prefers ____________.


Sarah prefers to study law to medicine.

Sarah prefers to study medicine to law.

Please advise if any of the answers is correct..

TIA.

Both are wrong as they ignore parallelism, that is you should have the same grammatical units. In both answers, 'prefers' is followed by infinitive+noun whereas 'to' is followed by a noun.

Should be:
Sarah prefers law to medicine.
Sarah prefers to study law rather than to study medicine.

Rgds
R

Would \"Sarah prefers studying law to medicine\" be an acceptable answer?[/quote]This still ignores parallelism. Furthermore, we normally state different activities:

Teacher Ridcully prefers reading books to watching television.

Teacher Ridcully prefers listening to speaking.

Teacher Ridcully prefers studying to playing.

Rgds
R

I am logging off now. Have a great Sunday everyone! :rahrah:

zsqchx:

Alicia was cycling, at east coast Park with her family when she saw her classmate, Susan,_______ a picnic with her family.


1) has 2) had 3) have )4 having

Ans 4.

This is verb of perception + object + base form/gerund structure.

Rgds
R

chrisu:

Wah, you are early on a Sunday morning. Thank you.

Must look after my fan club! :imanangel: