[General] Doubt about an answer given on a test.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
Hello fellow members of this wonderful community!

I had an English test very recently, on which a particular question stood out to me.
As you can see in these images my doubt is very simple: On question 2. isn't it possible for option b) to be correct?
The teacher couldn't give me a satisfying clarification, unfortunately, so I'm resorting to all of you.

Any and every comment is very much appreciated!

Here's the full excerpt in case it is needed for context, with a highlight regarding question 2:
BOpg7dy


Here's the portion of it that made me conclude option b) was equally correct:
FMw18gB


And finally here's the question itself:
7FsERAl


Note: This is NOT my test.
 
Last edited:

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Your third snapshot bears no relation to the other two.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
I can't see any of the images.
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
I have to right click on them and 'Open image in new tab'.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
I am terribly sorry, since somehow I copied the wrong image (the last one). It's better if I just link the full album: http://imgur.com/a/adno8
Yet again I'm really sorry, I'm quite new around.

Cheers, João
 

GoesStation

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Write I'm quite new around here or just I'm quite new here.:)

Answer b) is "several teens will read Harry Potter books over and over again." The author writes "...many teens... will just start from the first book and read through them all again." I suppose the test writer would point out that many is not the same as several, so b) is wrong.

This is a poorly-constructed question.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
Thanks for the correction, even though it just happened because I didn't proofread my text!
I was referring to the other question, the one directly below the one you mentioned.

The reason I highlighted that whole sentence was because it specifically says "Addopting (...) reading habits are duties parents and teachers share." My understanding of this sentence is that parents and teachers, besides just supporting/encouraging reading habits, should addopt them, and therefore question 2., option b) would be equally correct as c).
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Tarheel

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Could you copy and paste from now on?
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
What exactly? I'm quite tired so it might be affecting my judgement.
 

Tarheel

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
None of the links worked for me.

Get some rest.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
Not even the album link I posted later? That's strange...
 

Tarheel

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Post number 5? Okay, that one works. I can't read it easily though.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
Yes that one. Really? That's unfortunate, I'm sorry. The most important bits are really the sentence underlined in red and the question itself (last picture). If you can give me some insight I'd highly appreciate it! Thank you for your time.

P.S. If anything I may reupload the images, only this time zoomed in.
 

probus

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Can anyone cast any light on why tdol, ems, tarheel and I can't see what the OP is talking about? I am using Windows 8 and see no attachments at all.
 

allenman

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Hi Joao
I agree with the earlier poster that (b) is not correct because it says "several" -- this implies just a few. The article (which has grammatical mistakes in it) seems to imply a large number of children. The only answer that follows that line of thinking is (a).

Hope that helps
(not a teacher, but I am a native expert speaker :) )
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
I agree with Allenman- the text says that some children's reading only extends to the latest Harry Potter, which makes a) correct, but the word several in b) excludes it from being a correct answer.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Can anyone cast any light on why tdol, ems, tarheel and I can't see what the OP is talking about? I am using Windows 8 and see no attachments at all.

I am using Chrome on Linux Kubuntu, so I can only cast darkness on the question as it doesn't appear to be a browser or OS problem.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Portuguese
Home Country
Portugal
Current Location
Portugal
I am yet again sorry since I wasn't clear enough. I actually debated cropping out the question, since it was the second one. The one you're talking about I'm sure it's that one, my doubt is about the father and teacher's duties (question 2.).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top