all haven’t passed the test

[diamondcutter]

--Mr Smith, are you satisfied with the students’ grades?
--Yes, although ____ haven’t passed the test, they tried their best.

A. all
B. none
C. those
D. ones

(from my exercise book)


The answer key is A. I wonder if ‘all haven’t passed the test’ means ‘none of them has passed the test’.

 

[Rover_KE]

Who set that dreadful exercise? There's no natural-sounding option.

A comes closest and means what you think.

 

[Glizdka]

Not a teacher
------

What if we changed haven't to has?

--Mr Smith, are you satisfied with the students’ grades?
--Yes, although ____ (of them) has passed the test, they tried their best.

Would "...although none (of them) has passed..." be correct?

 

[Roman55]

Would "...although none (of them) has passed..." be correct?

[FONT=&quot]Yes, it would. As would, none of them have passed.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]As for the original question, I don't take all haven't passed to mean all have failed. I understand that to mean not all of them passed.[/FONT]

 

[Rover_KE]

What if we changed haven't to has?

--Mr Smith, are you satisfied with the students’ grades?
--Yes, although _all___ (of them) have passed the test, they tried their best.

That doesn't work. If they all passed the test, the second sentence becomes a non sequitur.

 

[jutfrank]

It's hard to believe that such a question would be published.

Are you sure you copied the question correctly? Which book is this taken from? Please tell us the title and author.

 

[Tarheel]

--Mr Smith, are you satisfied with the students’ grades?
--Yes, although ____ haven’t passed the test, they tried their best.

A. all
B. none
C. those
D. ones

(from my exercise book)


The answer key is A. I wonder if ‘all haven’t passed the test’ means ‘none of them has passed the test’.

Yes, if you take it literally. But I don't believe it was meant that way. I tell you what. I'll give you the sentences, and you devise the exercise.

A: Mr. Smith, are you satisfied with the students' grades?
B: Yes, although not all of them passed the test, I believe they did their best.

 

[diamondcutter]

It's hard to believe that such a question would be published.

Are you sure you copied the question correctly? Which book is this taken from? Please tell us the title and author.

This is the picture of the question. I'm sure I copied it correctly.


The exercise book is edited for junior high school students in Henan Province to prepare for the Senior High School Entrance Examination in Henan Province, published by Elephant Press and the author is not mentioned.

 

[Rover_KE]

Thank you.

Question 2 in that link has a non sequitur in the response, too. A better one would be 'Thank you. I've been trying hard'.