• Exciting news! With our new Ad-Free Premium Subscription you can enjoy a distraction-free browsing experience while supporting our site's growth. Without ads, you have less distractions and enjoy faster page load times. Upgrade is optional. Find out more here, and enjoy ad-free learning with us!

find a mistake in a sentence

Status
Not open for further replies.

whl626

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
1. The reason he has been such a success is because he never gives up.
The reason that ?

2. For hundreds of years the Indian tribe has wandered the valleys and mountains during the spring, and in winter have begun the trip home.
has begun ?

3. He said that being a king was dangerous, like he were sitting on top of a mountain waiting to be pushed off.
as if he ?

4. By the time we had pulled the drowning child from the water, he wasn't scarcely breathing.
was scarcely ?

5. It is important to lock one's doors at night and do not let anyone enter unless he identifies himself.
not to let ?

6. I cannot help admiring a person who does not continually cry about their problems.
his problems ?

7. To completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far.
it requires ?

8. Before she began to feel any stronger, she had taken most all the medicine prescribed by the doctor.
almost all ?

9. We knew that they would have more trouble getting there on time than us.
than we ?

10. She felt badly about breaking the new watch which my parents had given me for my sixteenth birthday.
felt bad ?

I got the feel that all are correct this time :)
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
Wow, some of the sentences are tough, especially 7. I can't seem to figure out the error. Sorry. :(

1. What about? ...is that...

2. I believe the error has to do with the fact that there are two different verbs: ...the Indian tribe has wandered and have begun the trip home.

All the best, :D
 

whl626

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
I agree that the first is ' is that '

1. The reason he has been such a success is that he never gives up.

... ( that he never gives up ) is a noun clause. I should have forseen it.

Regarding 7

How about " 7.

To completely understand the situation, he requires more thought than he has given thus far.

( To completely understand the situation ) serves as a noun phrase modifying the subject ' he ' ???
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
whl626 said:
I agree that the first is ' is that '

1. The reason he has been such a success is that he never gives up.

... ( that he never gives up ) is a noun clause. I should have forseen it.

Regarding 7., what about?

To completely understand the situation, he requires more thought than he has given thus far.

To completely understand the situation serves as a noun phrase modifying the subject 'he' ?

7. To completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far.

What about?

A. The situation requires more thought than he has given thus far.

B. To completely understand the situation will require more thought than he has given thus far.

All the best, :D
 

whl626

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
I got the answer, it put it that

"To completely understand" is wrong ???

And

Regarding the previous sentence, I got the answer too.

It was inconsiderate of him not to have told Mary and us of his decision to call off the party.

It put it that ( to have told ) is wrong ???

How about ' to tell ' then ? The answer is not what we seem it should be Mary OR us ?

Doing these exercises make my head SPIN :(
 

Francois

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Yet another purist in crusade against the split infinitive? It's perfectly correct to me....

it put it that
Try "the book says that"
Doing these exercises makes my head SPIN
;)

FRC
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
whl626 said:
I got the answer, it put it that

"To completely understand" is wrong?

Cool. That's what we deduced. :D (See A. in previous post)

Regarding the previous sentence, I got the answer too.

It was inconsiderate of him not to have told Mary and us of his decision to call off the party.

It put it that ( to have told ) is wrong? How about ' to tell ' then ? The answer is not what we seem it should be Mary OR us ?

Doing these exercises make my head SPIN

Sorry, but the entire sentence has my head spinning, too. :oops:

edited for formatting
 

whl626

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
The answer only indicates that certain part is a mistake but doesn't show where the mistake lies :(
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
whl626 said:
The answer only indicates that certain part is a mistake but doesn't show where the mistake lies :(

It was inconsiderate of him not to have told Mary and us of his decision to call off the party.

I like your solution: to tell. :up:
 

whl626

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
Malaysia
Current Location
Malaysia
7. To completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far.

Cas, we assume that the Answer is correct that ( To completely understand ) is wrong. Can I interpret that the verb ( requires ) lacks a subject. In this case, we can put ( That ) as the subject of the sentence. It became

That to completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far. ?

:p Hopefully it doesn't sound odd :p
 

Casiopea

VIP Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Member Type
Other
whl626 said:
7. To completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far.

Cas, we assume that the Answer is correct that ( To completely understand ) is wrong. Can I interpret that the verb ( requires ) lacks a subject. In this case, we can put ( That ) as the subject of the sentence. It became

That to completely understand the situation requires more thought than he has given thus far. ?

:p Hopefully it doesn't sound odd :p

Sorry. It doesn't work. Good try, though. :up:

The main point is this, it's the situation that requires more thought on his part,

The situation (it) requires more thought.

He doesn't understand the situation, so he will need to give the situation more thought. It requires more thought on his part.

All the best, :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top