Go Back   UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum > Learning English > Ask a Teacher


Like Tree2Likes
  • 1 Post By Anglika
  • 1 Post By susiedqq

Closed Thread
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 25-Mar-2008, 22:38
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,232
Home Country: China
Native Language: Chinese
Current Location: China
Member Type: Student or Learner
Default badly needed to buy

This is a fill-in question set by a Chinese teacher of English:

With some books badly needed ______,she hurried to the bookstore.
A.buying B. bought C.to buy D.buy
The given answer is 'to buy'.

I doubt if this is a correct sentence. Should we say 'She badly needed to buy some books, so she hurried to the book store'? And can the sentence 'She badly needed to buy some books' be changed into the passive 'Some books were badly needed to be bought'? It sounds odd.

Could I ask native English teachers to help me? Thank you very much.
  #2  
Old 25-Mar-2008, 23:02
No Longer With Us
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 19,449
Member Type: Other
Default Re: badly needed to buy

An awkward sentence.

What you are most likely to hear is "With some books badly needing to be bought, she hurried to the bookstore." - but this is not one of the options offered.

In good English, the sentence could be " Needing some books badly, she hurried to the bookstore to buy them", or indeed your suggested sentence.

Of the options offered, the one I would go for is "buying": "With some books badly needed buying ,she hurried to the bookstore."
  #3  
Old 25-Mar-2008, 23:22
Key Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,938
Home Country: United States
Native Language: English
Current Location: United States
Member Type: Academic
Default Re: badly needed to buy

Also possible:

Having some badly needed books to buy, she hurried to the bookstore.

"badly needed," are adjective modifying "books"
Closed Thread

Bookmarks

Tags
needed to buy


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Is 'be' here absolutely needed? wuwei Ask a Teacher 2 09-Jul-2007 06:46
please i really needed it badly Unregistered Ask a Teacher 1 27-May-2007 16:14
bad or badly notmyname216 Ask a Teacher 7 13-Mar-2006 21:46
Need or Needed? piggy386 Ask a Teacher 2 08-Nov-2004 03:50


All times are GMT. The time now is 15:33.



Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO ©2011, Crawlability, Inc.