Miscellaneaous grammar

Question

Hi,A friend of mine has done an English Placement Test required for college admission and needed to check his answers on that test.I had a look and felt there were answers that seemed unnatural to me.I am going to provide certain items and I need your feed back please.My answers will be in bold and I will add my remark to the answer.Choose the best answer to fill in the blank.  1. Please ask Mr Smith if I ...... him next week. a. am seeingb. see c. will be seen d. can be seeing* I think the choices are not natural 2. As you drive down the road, take the ......, and you will see his house ahead. a. left second turn b. left turnc. second turn leftd. left turning *Are the others natural or possible?3. ...... you paid me twice the salary, I wouldn't take that job. a. although b. despite c. though d. even if4. ..... people know the town better than old Jake here. a. The few b. Fewc. Only the few d. Only few*Are not both of the choices possible?5. You must boil those vegetables before .... in the stew. a. using themb. usingc. their used d. the use6. ..... knows that Dallas is not the capital of Texas. a. Anyone b. Not everyonec. Many personsd. SomebodyThanks.

Enoon · Accepted Answer

1. Please ask Mr Smith if I ...... him next week.
a. am seeing
b. see
c. will be seen
d. can be seeing

* I think the choices are not natural

"Am seeing" is right. That is the present simple used as a future tense.

2. As you drive down the road, take the ......, and you will see his house ahead.
a. left second turn
b. left turn
c. second turn left
d. left turning

*Are the others natural or possible?

None of these is right. Choice "c" is the best of them, but it sounds strange. I would say "second left".

3. ...... you paid me twice the salary, I wouldn't take that job.
a. although
b. despite
c. though
d. even if

Correct.

4. ..... people know the town better than old Jake here.
a. The few
b. Few
c. Only the few
d. Only few

*Are not both of the choices possible?

No, it's "few". The others are not possible. "Only a few" would work.

5. You must boil those vegetables before .... in the stew.
a. using them
b. using
c. their used
d. the use

OK, "using" is possible, but it is unnatural—badly telegraphic.

6. ..... knows that Dallas is not the capital of Texas.
a. Anyone
b. Not everyone
c. Many persons
d. Somebody

Nope. "Everyone", yes. "Anyone", no.

Nsfs2 · Answer

Thanks for your help,enoon.

Could you please elaborate on why my choices in 5,6,7 are not correct?Does the choice in have to do with meaning ,or grammar?

And in number 2, you mention that none is correct.Why?

Sorry if I bothered you with my questions,but I need to justify to my friend why his answers are not correct.

Thanks,again.

Enoon · Answer

I don't see a number 7.

5. A bare "using" is possible in informal speech, but you can only drop so many words before it starts to sound choppy and unclear. The reader is momentarily confused as to what is using what without a "them" to help him.

6. That's just idiom. We already say "everyone" in that context, so even though "anyone" makes sense, there is no place for it there.

2. "Second turn left" is just an unnatural way to put it. "Second left turn" just about gets by, but I always just say "second left". The dictionaries bear that out:

AHD: A turn in the direction of the left hand or side.
MW: a turn to the left.
COED: a left turn.

Nsfs2 · Answer

enoonI don't see a number 7.

Sorry!I meant No.4.

Thanks,again.

Enoon · Answer

nsfs2I meant No.4.

Ah. We just don't put it that way. "Only" is redundant with "few". It would work with "a few", because that means "a small number of", whereas "few" means "not many". Only a small number of people might know, but you can't say that only not many do.

Nsfs2 · Answer

enoon2. As you drive down the road, take the ......, and you will see his house ahead. a. left second turn b. left turnc. second turn leftd. left turning *Are the others natural or possible?None of these is right. Choice "c" is the best of them, but it sounds strange. I would say "second left".

Hi,

I searched COCA and found out one result that uses 'the left turn';so I wonder whether or not this is correct use as compared to the sentence above.

'... . The road grew narrower between the hedgerows. She slowed to take the left turn past the Red Goat pub and then, even more slowly,...'

enoon4. ..... people know the town better than old Jake here. a. The few b. Fewc. Only the few d. Only few

Another search for 'only few' delivered 3 results.This is one of them:
'However, in our study, we had only few people of these old ages, and none over the age of 80. Practical'

If these examples show that they might be used, then the choices are possible on the test.Does the verb have anything to do with the use?What do you think?

Thanks a lot.

Enoon · Answer

I searched COCA and found out one result that uses 'the left turn';so I wonder whether or not this is correct use as compared to the sentence above.

'... . The road grew narrower between the hedgerows. She slowed to take the left turn past the Red Goat pub and then, even more slowly,...'

That's different. We know which left turn it is. In the exercise, we are told simply to take the left turn. That would be some pretty poor direction-giving.

Another search for 'only few' delivered 3 results.This is one of them:
'However, in our study, we had only few people of these old ages, and none over the age of 80.

Three is not many, is it? For any string of words, you can find a case where it is possible, especially in the Collection Of Clumsy Articles, but that sample seems wrong to me. I see where they were going, but they took the wrong road. I'll bet they had "but few" and tried to modernize it.

I don't know what you mean by the verb, but I don't see it having an effect.

So look in the COCA and save yourself the trouble of doing all this typing here. I can only tell you what I think as a fairly unstupid, rather old native speaker of American English, which is that the COCA is riddled with mistakes that will drag your writing down and that render it useless at best, dangerous at worst, as an arbiter of correct usage.

Nsfs2 · Answer

Hi,enoon,

Thanks for your answer ,and for your advice about COCA.I thought I could depend on that sit, but now, thanks to your advice, I'll be careful;and I won't save myself the trouble of typing ,especially when there are people like you,who devote their time to help learners like me.

Thanks, again.

Miscellaneaous grammar

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