It's been an open secret that....

[Silverobama]

In order to get a high score in the IELTS speaking and listening tests, I bought many exercise books containing exercises. There are many different kinds we can choose here and one series (containing six books) is very helpful because all the exercise papers it includes are authentic exam papers. This means that people who use the series of books are likely to once again see those exam questions (in those books) when they are taking the IELTS reading and speaking tests. On the first page of the books, it says "If you see any of those questions in this book when you take the IELTS test, don't get excited and answer those questions carefully."

I asked my student who will take the IELTS three months later to buy these books and he asked me why, I said:

It's been an open secret that these books have the identical questions you might meet in your future exam.

I don't think the sentence is natural. But I really don't know how to phrase it. Please help me.

 

[emsr2d2]

In order to get a high score in the IELTS speaking and listening tests, I bought many exercise books containing exercises. There are many different kinds we can choose here to choose from and one series (containing six books) is very helpful because all the exercise papers it includes are authentic exam papers. This means that people who use the series of books are likely to once again see those exam questions (in those books) when they are taking the IELTS reading and speaking tests. On the first page of the books, it says "If you see any of those questions in this book when you take the IELTS test, don't get excited and answer those questions carefully."

1. You must give us the title and author(s) of that series of books because you have quoted from them.
2. Are you certain that you've copied the underlined sentence exactly as it was written? It's not a great sentence. At the very least, it's poorly punctuated.

I asked my student who will take the IELTS in three months later to buy these books and he asked me why. I said:

It's been an open secret that these books have the identical questions you might meet in your future exam.

I don't think the sentence is natural no full stop here but I really don't know how to phrase it. Please help me.

It's an open secret that these books contain questions that are identical to the ones you might find in future exams.

 

[Silverobama]

1. You must give us the title and author(s) of that series of books because you have quoted from them.

Sorry, my bad. Actually I've been a member of some forums for more than 10 years and I always remember to name the source. I forgot again because this was printed in Chinese.



It's 9分达人， and the author is "王毅".

2. Are you certain that you've copied the underlined sentence exactly as it was written? It's not a great sentence. At the very least, it's poorly punctuated.

Yes, but it's in Chinese, we can see that in the picture, it's at the down right bottom. And we can also see some dates there, those dates mean that the exercise papers are from the real IELTS tests. (time)

It's an open secret that these books contain questions that are identical to the ones you might find in future exams.

Much appreciated!

One last question. Is it good to use "It's an open secret" here?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes—as emsr2d2 wrote in post #2, but not with ‘been’, as you had in your thread title and the OP.

 

[emsr2d2]

I always remember to name the source. I forgot again

Those two sentences contradict each other. If you always remember to name the source, it's impossible for you to "forget again" because the first statement means that you never forget to do so. If you've never done it, you can't do it again.

 

[Silverobama]

Actually I've been a member of some forums for more than 10 years and I always remember to name the source. I forgot again because this was printed in Chinese.

Those two sentences contradict each other. If you always remember to name the source, it's impossible for you to "forget again" because the first statement means that you never forget to do so. If you've never done it, you can't do it again.

I hate to argue with anyone here, not only because all of you help me but also I tend to respect people here. I already said that because the book was printed in Chinese, and that became the reason why I didn't include the source. I remember, yes, you told me to name the source when last time Rover asked me to provide the source of my translation and I said it was in Chinese. Anyway, I'll bear in mind this.