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Lcchang Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

A difficult multiple choice

0Dear teachers,02br
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00The following multiple choice question has puzzled me for a while. Please help.02br
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01font00Speaker A: What are you doing here?02font02br
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01font00Speaker B: 02br
00a) I live here. Are you just visiting?02br
00b) Get out of my way!02br
00c) Everyone thinks I am so busy, but I like it that way.02br
00d) I've been waiting for you for 20 minutes. What took you so long?02font02br
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00The answer d) is the right answer according to the answer key.02br
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00But I don't even understand the whole story in this dialogue. Why can't a) be the answer?02br
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00Please advise.02br
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00Lcchang02br
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Top answer

0I don't follow this either. 0-

— Nona the brit

  • 0I don't follow this either.
  • 0-
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10 Answers
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0I don't follow this either. I think a is a much better answer too.02br
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00D doesn't make sense because the question shows that speaker A is surprised to see Speaker b, whereas answer D shows that they had arranged to meet.0-
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0 Haha, yeah, that's one of the dumbest multiple choice questions I've seen. 02br
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00D is a very stupid answer because it should be, "I've been waiting for you HERE for 20 minutes. What took you so long?". That would have been much clearer.02br
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00However, A seems unlikely as an answer though, because of the visiting thing.0-
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0Hi,02br
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00This is my interpretation:02br
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01font00Speaker B: 02br
00a) I live here. Are you just visiting? 01font00Wrong02font00. 01font00The second sentence has no relevance to the first sentence.02font02font02
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0To say(d) is correct implies that Speaker A has forgotten his/her appointment with Speaker B/02br
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00To choose (a) for a reply implies verbal irony on Speaker B’s part. Therefore, “Are you just visiting” means “What are YOU doing here. I am supposed to ask you, since you are trespassing?”02br
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00Regardless of the answer key, I would say that (a)
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0 I take (a) as a dialogue between a traveler and a gentleman of the road.02br
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00paco 0-
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0 I think (d) is a conversation between two people who were supposed to meet, but one of them misunderstood the time or place. (What are you doing 01i00here02i00? I thought we were supposed to meet at the other Starbucks, across the street!) 0-
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01. "What are you doing here?" "I live here. Are you just visiting?"02br
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00— If B lives there, and knows that A is visiting, there's no justification for A's assumption that B has no right to be there. Possibility: a case of mistaken identity on A's part; or amnesia on B's.02br
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002. "What are you doing here?" "Get out of my way!"02br
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1font00Oh dear Mr. Pedantic02font02br
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01font00You sure are so pedantic. I really appreaciate your explanation. In any case, after seeing all the good teachers' explixit answers, I tend to choose D. The reason is quite simple: Since speaker A was asking B what he/she was doing, B needed to tell A what he/ she
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0I still find A the most natural.02br
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00What are you doing here? (A spots B in a town where neither A nor B have a 'history'. they know each other but have not seen each other for a long time. Old school friends?)02br
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00I live here. Are you just visiting? (B moved here after graduation. Is delighted to see A, wants to know if A also lives in this
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Nona The Brit12cite10Kind of a 'it's a small world' surprised meeting.12br
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10Yes, that works for me too.02br
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00MrP0-
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