[Vocabulary] He is easy to deal with.

[SongYuxiang]

Dear teachers,

I am frustrated by the following question:


He is easy to deal with.

A. get on well with B. do with C. agree with D. be along with


Which one of the above 4 can be chosen to replace the underlined part in the sentence. To me, D. sounds correct. But someone told me it should be B. What's your opinion? Thanks.

 

[Rover_KE]

A is the best of a bad set of choices.

Rover

 

[birdeen's call]

A is the best of a bad set of choices.

Rover

Why is the set of choices bad?

 

[billmcd]

Why is the set of choices bad?

Of the four possible choices "A." is best. "B." has no meaning in that context and few others. "C." and "D." don't work because "deal with" involves an exchange of some sort, in your example, between persons.

 

[Rover_KE]

Why is the set of choices bad?

Because we have no way of knowing what the original sentence is supposed to mean.

'...deal with' can have at least two meanings.


Rover

 

[birdeen's call]

Because we have no way of knowing what the original sentence is supposed to mean.

'...deal with' can have at least two meanings.


Rover

What are these meanings?

 

[BobK]

Probably 'get on well with' and 'do business with' (though the first of these meanings is new to me; it's more like 'control the behaviour of' or perhaps simply 'tolerate', but those - like 'do business with' - aren't offered as choices). So I agree it's a bad set of choices.

b