jiang said:
Dear teachers,
Could you lease explain the following choices?
________ your stupidity we lost the game.
a. because of b. Due to c. Owing to
The key is 'd'--- Thanks to.
I am afraid 'a', 'b' and 'c' are confusing.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Jiang
I agree with most of what has been said. All four answers are acceptable to me. There have been historical objections to "due to" being used as a preposition, but I think most of that has died down. That does not explain the problem that the answer key has with the others, however.
due to
prep.
Because of.
USAGE NOTE Due to has been widely used for many years as a compound preposition like owing to, but some critics have insisted that due should be used only as an adjective. According to this view, it is incorrect to say The concert was canceled due to the rain, but acceptable to say The cancellation of the concert was due to the rain, where due continues to function as an adjective modifying cancellation. This seems a fine point, however, and since due to is widely used and understood, there seems little reason to avoid using it as a preposition.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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