An exam mistake(answers from every one)

[bayan said]

Hello every one!
Dear sir,
My teacher at school gave me 38 out of 40 in the end of the year exam(though I didn't study for it at all the day befor) because of 2 mistakes in 2 questions:the first question says:add an opposite to the word "nice" in this sentence:Betty's school was nice it wasn't---- so I added"bad"he said "No,
there's a better word"so what's the other word?& is it considered as a mistake
to use"bad"as an opposite to"nice"in that sentence?...the second question was:choose the correct answer:high tides(flooded-have flooded-have been flooded)many areas,so I chose "have flooded"because it's a repeated verb & the time isn't mentioned,but he considered my answer wrong,because in the book there was an exercise which( or that)said: put the verbs in the simple past& that sentence was one of those sentences of the exercise,but I see that it was wrong to ask about the verb tense in that sentence because learning verb tenses by heart is wrong it must be by logical thinking according to the situations so,what's your opinion about it?

[MrPedantic]

Hello Bayan

When you say that a school is "nice", you mean that it's a pleasant school to attend. When you say that a school is "bad", on the other hand, you mean that the standard of teaching is not high. So "bad" wouldn't be a good choice, in your example.

Here are some antonyms of "nice": disagreeable, horrible, nasty, repulsive, unpleasant.

See if you can guess which one is best, for your sentence. Then I'll check your answer for you.

As for the second question, both versions are possible:

1. High tides flooded many areas.
2. High tides have flooded many areas.

One is not more correct than the other: the correctness depends on the context!

Have a good week,

MrP

[bayan said]

Hello mrpedantic,
as for my first question I think the antonym may be:terrible or unpleasant,
but I'm still proud of my self because I didn't study at all for this exam & got 38 out of 40 but I can say that my teacher isn't very good,when he writes a word on the black board he says"check it in the book for my,is the spelling right?",I hope I'll be a good proffesor of English one day...

[MrPedantic]

Hello Bayan

Yes, I think I'd choose "unpleasant" or "horrible". A very common antonym for "nice" is "nasty"; but it doesn't seem appropriate here.

(I should say that the exam sentence itself is a little strange.)

It's a pity about the teacher's spelling, but maybe he has a lot of things to worry about.

Anyway, 38 is very good, so

See you later,

MrP