[Grammar] will or are going to

[abo.omar]

Liverpool's players are known to be skilled. They ..... win the match easily.
( will - are going to)
This sentence is taken from our final secondary stage year or secondary three exam in Egypt.
The right answer is 'will',but is there any possibility for 'going to'?

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.

What was the task instruction exactly?

 

[abo.omar]

This sentence was In an important exam ,the Egyptian GSEC English exam without any more context.Just to choose '

Liverpool's players are known to be skilled. They ................. the match easily.
a-are winning
b-are going to win
c-win
d-will win

​

 

[GoesStation]

They will win and they are going to win are both possible.

 

[jutfrank]

I asked what the instructions were. There must have been some.

I mean did it ask you to:

Choose the best answer?
Choose the best answers?
Choose the grammatically correct answer?
Choose a grammatically correct answer?
Choose the grammatically correct answers?
Choose the most natural answer?
Choose a random answer?
Choose the wrong answer?
Guess what answer we want?

 

[abo.omar]

Choose the correct answer from a,b,c,or d.

 

[emsr2d2]

Choose the correct answer from a, b, c, [STRIKE]or[/STRIKE] and d.

Remember to put a space after every comma.

Unfortunately for the people taking the exam, that's a poor question. a, b and d are all possible, grammatical and natural.

 

[jutfrank]

Choose the correct answer from a,b,c,or d.

I see. In that case, the question is wrong because there are more than one correct answers.

 

[abo.omar]

Remember to put a space after every comma.

Unfortunately for the people taking the exam, that's a poor question. a, b and d are all possible, grammatical and natural.

'a' is right if I am speaking during the match time,right?

 

[emsr2d2]

'a' is right if I am speaking during the match, [STRIKE]time[/STRIKE] (space after a comma) right?

Yes, that's exactly the context I was thinking of. Note that, again, I have corrected the spacing around your punctuation. You must put a space after every comma, full stop, question mark and exclamation mark.

 

[jutfrank]

'a' is right if I am speaking during the match time,right?

Well, sort of, yes. If the question consisted of only the second sentence, then yes. If you are watching the match and the score is 6-0 with ten minutes left, you can use the present continuous to say Liverpool are winning easily.

The issue with this question is that the person who wrote it was thinking of the match as a future event. So, in order to try to make this clear, he/she added the first sentence, thinking that it would render answer 'a' as incorrect. In my opinion, the writer does succeed in doing that, though not as well as he/she could have.

But still, if the match is thought of as a future event, that still leaves 'b' and 'd' as correct answers.

I don't enjoy criticising teachers for writing poor test questions (which I don't tend to do without seeing the task instructions) because this is something I myself occasionally do and I know how hard it can be. However, in this case, the question doesn't seem to work as it lacks validity. The only defence I can imagine for it being at all valid would be that the teacher has spent some time with the students in distinguishing a difference of use between will and be going to with regard to the nature of evidence upon which the prediction is based, and is trying to test understanding of this distinction.

What we usually teach is this:

• Use be going to to make predictions when there is present (or 'direct') evidence. This may be evidence that can be seen or heard, or otherwise witnessed with the senses.

• Use will to make predictions when there is no present evidence.

Based on the above very general rule of usage, the answer should be will. Unfortunately, real usage is not so clear cut.

 

[Tarheel]

I see. In that case, the question is wrong because there is more than one correct answer.