"already" in questions

sitifan

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2006
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English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Taiwan
Current Location
Taiwan
1. Hank: Have you ____ met that famous writer?
Nina: No, I haven't.
(A) never (B) ever (C) already (D) no

2. Anna: Have they bought a new CD player ____?
Brad: Yes, they have ___bought one.
(A) yet; already (B) yet; yet (C) already; yet (D) already; already

[Source: Hanlin English Question Bank]

The answer to #1 is B. Is C also acceptable?
The answer to #2 is A. Is D also acceptable?
 
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My answer is yes to both. However, I would choose (E) in both cases. (None of the above.)
 
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This seems to be the hundredth time that you've asked a question like this. What exactly do you mean by 'acceptable'?
 
Does this "Hanlin English Question Bank" suggest that there is only one grammatically correct answer in each case? If so, they don't know what they're talking about. If they're asking you to choose the words that are most likely, that's a different story. However, if the answer key doesn't make it clear that more than one option is grammatically possible, they're doing learners a huge disservice. Also, as Tarheel pointed out, nothing is really required in any of the spaces.
 
I can't remember how many times I've said this before. The whole point of these multiple choice questions is to choose just one answer. If more than one answer is possible grammatically, then the test writer has a problem, and is forced to say something like 'Choose the best answer'. Even with that, since the sentences are without any context to help understand the meaning, you'll end up with a problematic question.
 
The time stamp helpfully tells me when I posted that. (I should have been in bed, but I wasn't. 😄)

I know that I answered that question as if it said "Are these sentences grammatical?" or something like that. Whether a sentence is appropriate or not depends on the situation. Absent context, I would not use any of the choices.
 
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