Re: CAE Test
- From: ilpo478@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:06:52 -0700
On Oct 10, 5:28 pm, "Amethyst Deceiver" <s...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
At the moment you are not displaying native speaker level intuitions about
English, Farhad. Possibly better to allow native speakers to answer first
for something like this.
I'd still say it's better to allow non-native speakers try their best
first. Tests like this are a bit too trivial for native speakers,
innit?
A few items you passed without a comment:
Farhad wrote:
On Oct 9, 11:39 am, EnglishPeter <koeb...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
2. .................... the question?
A. Do you understand B. You understand
C. Are you understanding
Both A and B are correct. Again, this is a poor item. It starts with
unknown information and ends with known information. It should be the
other way around. And why it has three options while the previous item
had four options?
"Why does it have...".
A is the only correct answer, at least in formal writing. True or
false?
5. Tom can't write. .................... his arm.
A. He's broken B. He broke C. He was breaking
A is the correct answer. C is poor distracter.
B is also acceptable.
This made me start to ponder when to choose A and when B. Could there
be a touch of disappointment in option B: He (poor sod went and) broke
his arm (at the worst possible moment). Option A simply states the
fact. Anobody agree?
6. It's only the second time she .................... a horse. She's
very good at
it.
A. rode B. rides C. has ridden
Poor item. Is "it's" a short form of "it is" or "it was"? In case of
the former, C would be the best, if not the only, answer. In case of
the latter, A would be the best, if not the only, answer.
I would've chosen B since the context implies (at least to me) that
she's riding the horse at the moment. "It's" and "has ridden" don't
seem to fit that well together. I'd expect to see "has ridden" in
sentences like "She has ridden a horse only two times (before - if
she's on a horse now or is about to be)." Have I got it right, or
alternatively, wrong? And, can "was" really be contracted like Farhad
suggested? Could, for instance, "He's a jolly good fellow" mean that
he _was_ a jolly good fellow (until he got worse)?
10. a: "Maya's in hospital."
b: 'Is she? Oh, I .................... her some flowers."
A. 'm sending B. 'll send C. 'm going to send
All the options are correct.
Again, context seems to suggest that the information about Maya came
as a surprise to person b. If so, wouldn't B be the correct answer?
Wouldn't both A and C imply some sort of premeditation and thus be
less likely responds to a surprising new piece of information?
These comments of mine are based on my non-native intuition, and some
of them, if not all, are probably wrong. Many of these are the kind of
questions we have to struggle with most of the time when using
English. So, even if the test isn't up to professional standards, I'd
say it still has at least some merits.
.
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