"The competition is another.............. of his life-long support for the arts"
A Manifestation
B Token
I'm pretty sure that it's B but my teacher said A is the correct answer. Tell me, which one of us is correct and why
A token is a not-very-valuable indicator of something more important. Calling the competition a token demeans it. On the other hand, his lifelong support of the arts has become apparent at various stages in that life; each time, that is a manifestation.
b
NOT A TEACHER
(1) As the teacher told us, the word "token" often has a negative meaning.
(2) Let's say there is a country with 100 people. Let's say 90 of the 100 people have red hair; 10 people
have yellow hair. Let's say that the 90 red-haired people have all the good jobs. Let's say that the 10
yellow-haired people say "We want good jobs, too." Well, maybe the red-haired people will then give
a good job to one yellow-haired person. We say that the one yellow-haired person is a "token." That
job was given to that one yellow-haired person to make the 9 other yellow-haired people happy.
(3) When you speak English, be very careful how you use this word.
It doesn't always have a negative sense. In the following sentence, it suggests merely that the value of the thing offered is small compared with the 'value' of the appreciation.
Please accept this watch as a token of our appreciation for all you have done for the company.
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.