0
Angliholic Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
It ran on gasoline
The cause of teh emergency turned out to be a broken water pump in the basement. It ran on gasoline and had begun to release poisonous gas into the air during the night.
I wonder if I could say "It worked/operated on gasoline" instead of the part in bold without making a change in meaning.
Second, why would the broken water pump release poisonous gas simply because it ran on gasoline? What is the logic here? Thanks.
I wonder if I could say "It worked/operated on gasoline" instead of the part in bold without making a change in meaning.
Second, why would the broken water pump release poisonous gas simply because it ran on gasoline? What is the logic here? Thanks.
Top answer
You could use operated here (worked doesn't really work) but we normally speak of machines 'running' on a fuel. The sentence doesn't say that the cause of the poisonous gas was just that it ran on gasoline - the pump was broken, therefore poisonous gas was released, relating to its fuel. It could equally have sprung a leak if it had run on gas or other power - but this poisonous gas comes from gasoline.
- You could use operated here (worked doesn't really work) but we normally speak of machines 'running' on a fuel.
- The sentence doesn't say that the cause of the poisonous gas was just that it ran on gasoline - the pump was broken, therefore poisonous gas was released, relating to its fuel.
- It could equally have sprung a leak if it had run on gas or other power - but this poisonous gas comes from gasoline.
- If it hadn't been broken, it wouldn't have released the gas.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
3 Answers
0
You could use operated here (worked doesn't really work) but we normally speak of machines 'running' on a fuel.
The sentence doesn't say that the cause of the poisonous gas was just that it ran on gasoline - the pump was broken, therefore poisonous gas was released, relating to its fuel. It could equally have sprung a leak if it had run on gas or other power - but this poisonous gas comes
The sentence doesn't say that the cause of the poisonous gas was just that it ran on gasoline - the pump was broken, therefore poisonous gas was released, relating to its fuel. It could equally have sprung a leak if it had run on gas or other power - but this poisonous gas comes
00
Nona The BritYou could use operated here (worked doesn't really work) but we normally speak of machines 'running' on a fuel.
The sentence doesn't say that the cause of the poisonous gas was just that it ran on gasoline - the pump was broken, therefore poisonous gas was released, relating to its fuel. It could equally have sprung a leak if it had run
00
Related Questions