How they said it/ how they respond to it
Hi teachers!
The passage below is from a book I study now. The question regarding this is to choose proper expression between the underlines sentences. My book says the answer is 'how they said it' and I wonder why 'how they respond to it' cannot be the answer. To me, I cannot find any differences between the two.
Please, let me know why - and my book itself could not be correct ( because, the author of the book is Korean)
" In a mock jury study, researcher Bonnie Erickson and her colleagues had people listen to a witness answer questions about a supposed accident—for example, “Approximately how long did you stay there before the ambulance arrived?”
Some jurors heard the witness respond straightforwardly: “Twenty minutes. Long enough to help get Mrs. David straightened out.”
Others listened to the witness hem and haw: “Oh, it seems like it was about, uh, twenty minutes. Just long enough to help my friend Mrs. David, you know, get straightened out.”
What the witnesses said turned out to be less important than how they said it / how they respond to it : the straightforward, confident witnesses were rated significantly more credible."
Many thanks in advance.
Top answer
" "respond" is the wrong tense (should be "responded"), but "responded" wouldn't work properly anyway because the referent of "it" feels wrong or too unclear. In "how they said it", the word "it" refers to the thing that they said. If "said" is changed to "responded" then this interpretation no longer makes sense.
- " "respond" is the wrong tense (should be "responded"), but "responded" wouldn't work properly anyway because the referent of "it" feels wrong or too unclear.
- In "how they said it", the word "it" refers to the thing that they said.
- If "said" is changed to "responded" then this interpretation no longer makes sense.
- Even fixing this would not result in a very clear sentence.
- For example: What the witnesses said turned out to be less important than how they responded to the question.
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Michelle ChaWhat the witnesses said turned out to be less important than how they said it / how they respond to it : the straightforward, confident witnesses were rated significantly more credible."
"respond" is the wrong tense (should be "responded"), but "responded" wouldn't work properly anyway because the referent of "it" feels wrong or too unclear. In
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