turn writer

[joham]

In China's classroom tests, we often meet with such fill-in sentences:

He has turned ____ (a, the, no article) writer. Then the answer is "no article".
But in the sentence: Both brothers have turned ____. Then is the answer writer, or writers? Well, you can't find such a sentence in a commonly-used dictionary.

Another question:
We say "Child as he is, he knows a lot." You can find similar sentences in dictionaries. But Chinese examination setters like to set such a question:

___(Child, Children, The children) as they are, they know a lot.
Again you can't find the answer from a dictionary.

Dear sir, could you please tell me which is the best answer. I feel I'm really hopeless at such exam questions.
I'm

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by joham

In China's classroom tests, we often meet with such fill-in sentences:

He has turned ____ (a, the, no article) writer. Then the answer is "no article".
But in the sentence: Both brothers have turned ____. Then is the answer writer, or writers? Well, you can't find such a sentence in a commonly-used dictionary.

Another question:
We say "Child as he is, he knows a lot." You can find similar sentences in dictionaries. But Chinese examination setters like to set such a question:

___(Child, Children, The children) as they are, they know a lot.
Again you can't find the answer from a dictionary.

Dear sir, could you please tell me which is the best answer. I feel I'm really hopeless at such exam questions.
I'm

You do not need a dictionary to find your answer. You have to look at the logic in the sentences.

"Both brothers" = how many brothers? one or more than one? If one = singular; if more than one = plural.


Similarly, pronoun "They" = plural? singular?

The other decision is whether you need the article or not. Is the reference a specific one or a general one. If specific, you will need an article; if general, you will not need one.

Have another try at the questions.

[joham]

Dear sir,
But my A NEW ENGLISH-CHINESE DICTIONARY says: Both sisters turned musician(s). I don't know why here musician is also right.

Could you please see if the sentences below I made by myself are right:

1. Children as they are, they know a lot.
2. We were fools enough to believe him. (I'm imitating the sentence in the dictionary: I was fool enough to believe him.)