Is it a suitable question according to the sentence?

Question

Hi teachers,According to this sentence, 'He was a dirty man in an old coat with a cigarette in his mouth.'Is this a suitable question, 'What did the man in the shop look like?My question is about '... with a cigarette in his mouth', is it also necessary according to the question?Thanks in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

'He was a dirty man in an old coat with a cigarette in his mouth.'
Is this a suitable question, 'What did the man in the shop look like?
My question is about '... with a cigarette in his mouth', is it also necessary according to the question?

Look, you cannot mandate what answers you will get, TS, unless you are very specific. You cannot get anyone to answer 'a cigarette' unless your question is 'What did he have in his mouth?'

Gigilian Nguyen · Answer

Hi,
What did the man in the shop look like? - It is a fine question to me.
... with a cigarette in his mouth - Should you want it as a necessary item, you have to add it yourself. If the person who is going to reply the question above wants, he can say it as well. Rarely do people say so. They will use dirty, and an old coat at most.
It's just my opinion, as I think that a cigarette in his mouth can be considered a detail to describe what the man looked like, or how he was:
How did the man in the shop look?
He looked / was dirty with an old coat and a cigarette in his mouth.

GN

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Mister MicawberLook, you cannot mandate what answers you will get, TS, unless you are very specific. You cannot get anyone to answer 'a cigarette' unless your question is 'What did he have in his mouth?'

Hi Mister Micawber,
Thank you for your reply. I should have expressed myself better. This is what the students will hear, ''He was a dirty man in an old coat with a cigarette in his mouth.'
Since this is for a listening exercise, I was wondering if 'with a cigarette in his mouth' should be included in the answer as part of the physical description or not.

TS

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Hi GN,
Thank you for your reply and opinion.
Could you tell me what the difference is between these two questions? If both are for physical description, what is the real difference?
a) What did the man in the shop look like?
b) How did the man in the shop look?

TS

Fivejedjon · Answer

Mister MicawberLook, you cannot mandate what answers you will get, TS, unless you are very specific.

This is something to bear in mind with all your questions, TS.

And, as I have pointed out elsewhere, such questions do not check comprehension; they merely check whether the learner has heard/read certain words. Here's an example:

Text:........ The persnogg had a snerdle in his mattice.
Question: Who (/What) had a snerdle in his/its mattice? ... Answer: The persnogg (had a snerdle in his/its mattice).
Question: What did the persnogg have in his/its mattice? ..Answer: (The persnogg had) a snerdle (in his/its mattice).
Question: Where did the personogg have a snerdle?..... Answer: (The persnogg had a snerdle) in his/its mattice.

A learner who gives those answers will be awarded full marks - and have no idea what persnoggs, snerdles and mattices are.
AAA
QuestionA

Gigilian Nguyen · Answer

Hi,
a) What did the man in the shop look like? - More physical.
b) How did the man in the shop look? - Just describes the looking generally.

We usually understand them as one. But b) is better to me, because the answer would be He looked / was dirty. If you want a really certain answer for a), it might be He looked like a dirty man (?) How could we say so?
Just in this situation, He looked like a very poor man, a) is a good choice.
However, both of them are used to ask about the man's looking.
a) What is the weather like?
b) How is the weather?
Either of them works. Both are about one topic - weather.
GN

Gigilian Nguyen · Answer

Thinking SpainCould you tell me what the difference between these two questions is?

GN

Fivejedjon · Answer

Thinking Spaina) What did the man in the shop look like?b) How did the man in the shop look?

I would ask (a) if I wanted a physical description (tall, dark-haired, wearing a black hat, etc), and (b) if I were asking for an assessment of his mental state or state of health (worried, nervous, sick, fit and healthy, etc).

Tenacious Learner · Answer

fivejedjonThis is something to bear in mind with all your questions, TS.
And, as I have pointed out elsewhere, such questions do not check comprehension; they merely check whether the learner has heard/read certain words.

Hi Fivejedjon,
Thank you for your concern. But I remember it very well. It is in one of my folders in the computer. I wrote down below what you taught me.
But these questions, the one I'm asking for, are not for intermediate students or upper. They are just for false beginners or low, very low intermediate. What I really want to check here is only their comprehension. They can't have real comprehension questions yet. Many false beginners fear with the idea of listening to a CD. They usually say, 'They talk too fast. It's really difficult to understand them' and things like that. If I give them real comprehension questions at this level, they will understand practically nothing. Don't you think so?

TS
Another point. If I am playing a short passage only once, I always give my students the questions before they hear the passage, so that they know what they are listening for.

Or, for a longer and/or more difficult passage:

1. I play the passage in full once, without pauses, so that they have the general idea of what it's about. (I do it.)
2. I give them the questions, with time to read them, so that they know what they are going to be listening for. (At this stage, some of the bright ones may already be able to answer some of the questions.) (You are right, some of then can asnwer a few question already.)
3. I play the whole passage again, with pauses at appropriate times so that they have a chance to circle/write in the answers. (I also do this)
4. (optional) I play the passage a third time, without pauses, so that they have a chance to check their answers. (I do it all the time. I sometimes even do it a fouth time)
Part of the point of this is that I am trying to check their comprehension, not their memory. (For intermediaye yes!)

Fivejedjon · Answer

I can only repeat that you are not checking their comprehension.

Is it a suitable question according to the sentence?

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