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Thread: articles in a gap-fill exercise

  1. #1
    Verona_82 is offline Senior Member
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    Default articles in a gap-fill exercise

    Hello,

    I'm doing a gap-fill exercise which is meant to test students' knowledge of articles. The task requires writing only one word. However (with my recently gained knowledge), I managed to come up with three different alternatives. I'd be grateful if someone could have a look at them and tell me if I should get rid of the book.

    __ accountant is responsible for ____ company's finances.

    an accountant, a company's - to talk about any accountant in any company. Such a sentence could be seen as generalisation.
    an accountant, the company - to talk about any accountant in a definite company
    the accountant, the company - to talk about a definite accountant in a definite company.

    Thank you in advance.

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    Default Re: articles in a gap-fill exercise

    Quote Originally Posted by Verona_82 View Post
    Hello,

    I'm doing a gap-fill exercise which is meant to test students' knowledge of articles. The task requires writing only one word. However (with my recently gained knowledge), I managed to come up with three different alternatives. I'd be grateful if someone could have a look at them and tell me if I should get rid of the book.

    __ accountant is responsible for ____ company's finances.

    an accountant, a company's - to talk about any accountant in any company. Such a sentence could be seen as generalisation.
    an accountant, the company - to talk about any accountant in a definite company
    the accountant, the company - to talk about a definite accountant in a definite company.

    Thank you in advance.
    Yes, all those sentences are good. And they mean what you say they do.
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    Default Re: articles in a gap-fill exercise

    This is an example the sloppy sort of gap-fill exercises that are presented too often to learners. The person who wrote the question had in mind a basic definition of an accountant: An accountant is responsible for a company's finances, and didn't think of the other possibilities.

    The really annoying thing is that your alternative answers would probably be rejected as incorrect by such people.
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    Verona_82 is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: articles in a gap-fill exercise

    Thank you!
    And if I rewrite the first and second ones (for the sake of practising the articles) using the preposition 'of', should they look like this:

    An accountant is a person who is responisble for __ money of a company.
    An accountant is a person who is responsible for the money of the company.

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    Default Re: articles in a gap-fill exercise

    Quote Originally Posted by Verona_82 View Post
    Thank you!
    And if I rewrite the first and second ones (for the sake of practising the articles) using the preposition 'of', should they look like this:

    An accountant is a person who is responisble for __ money of a company.
    An accountant is a person who is responsible for the money of the company.
    An accountant is a person who is responsible for the money of a company. This is correct.
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