CPE - Use of English, Help!!

[chrishans]

Hi! I sat for CPE yesterday and I have some doubts about one Key-word transformation sentence.

The original sentence was:

"Rosa should not have become a teacher."

The word was "MISTAKE"

The sentence I had to complete was:

"It's .... up teaching."

And finally what I put was:

"a mistake that Rosa took"

Believe it or not I remembered the question!!
So, what do you think, is it correct or not?

Thanks!!

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

What are the rules for this key word transformation exercise? Rearrange the sentence to include the key word while retaining the meaning of the original sentence?

In that case, it should be something like this:

"Rosa made a mistake becoming a teacher."
"It was a mistake for Rosa to become a teacher."

Also, we don't "take" mistakes, we "make" them.

 

[chrishans]

I don't want to sound rude, but if you are unfamiliar with the type of excercise, you'd better not have entered, since I made it clear in the title (CPE - Use of English).

Anyway, yes, what I have to do is complete the second sentence (It's ..... up teaching), with 3-8 words, using the word given without changing its form (MISTAKE) , so that it has a similar meaning to the first one.

I used "took" to match the "up" on the second sentence, meaning to start an activity.

 

[Tdol]

It's a mistake for Rosa to have taken up teaching?

 

[riquecohen]

(Not a Teacher)

What are the rules for this key word transformation exercise? Rearrange the sentence to include the key word while retaining the meaning of the original sentence?

In that case, it should be something like this:

"Rosa made a mistake becoming a teacher."
"It was a mistake for Rosa to become a teacher."

Also, we don't "take" mistakes, we "make" them.

It seems to me that within the parameters given, the OP's answer was a good option. I would have preferred "It was..." to "It's...," but that choice was not available. While we don't "take" mistakes, we do "take up" an activity, hobby, profession,etc.
Second thought: It's a mistake for Rosa to take up teaching.

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

I'm sorry, compadre, but not very many native speakers would have cause to take the CPE.

Anyway, what you wrote could work. Personally, I would say this:

"It was a mistake for Rosa to take up teaching."

I'm not sure if, by "It's", they mean "it is" or "it was". We don't normally contract "it was".
If they do mean "it is", then I would go for Tdol's answer. But it really should be past tense, though.

 

[chrishans]

Fine, but what about what I said: "It's a mistake that Rosa took up teaching"?

¿Does "mistake" collocate with "that + sth"? I didn't find any examples, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

 

[Tdol]

Not really. I find it hard to say that the sentence is wrong, though I don't like the use of is...took, which is why I used to have taken in my version.