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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010questions, please
Dear all, Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! 1. With masonry exploding aruond him, he courageously fought for those who had been lost ___ war. The correct answer is "to". I would like to know if "at" is suitable here. 2. ____the end of the poem, the speaker imagined himself telling his choice-making tale with a sigh. The correct answer is "At" . I wonder if "In" is suitable here. Thank you. 3. Imagine how you would feel if, 50 years or so from now, you found yourself living in a world devastated by the effects of climate change. Perhaps at the front of your mind would be the question, "Why didn't people do more to prevent this disaster while they still had the ___?" The correct answer is "chance". I wonder if the answers such as"possibility, choice or opportunity" would be correct, too. Why and why not? Thank you very much1 > Dear all, > Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! > 1. With masonry exploding aruond him, he courageously fought for those > who had been lost ___ war. > The correct answer is "to". I would like to know if "at" is > suitable here. No. One can be at war but not lost at war. Once can be lost at sea, however. > 2. ____the end of the poem, the speaker imagined himself telling his > choice-making tale with a sigh. > The correct answer is "At" . I wonder if "In" is suitable here. > Thank you. No. 'In the end...' is an adverbial phrase, however. > 3. Imagine how you would feel if, 50 years or so from now, you found > yourself living in a world devastated by the effects of climate > change. Perhaps at the front of your mind would be the question, "Why > didn't people do more to prevent this disaster while they still had > the ___?" > The correct answer is "chance". I wonder if the answers such > as"possibility, choice or opportunity" would be correct, too. Why and > why not? 'Opportunity' would also be correct. One says that a possibility exists, not that one has a possibility. 'Chance' is grammatically correct but does not fit the context. > > Dear all, > > Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > No. One can be at war but not lost at war. Once can be lost at sea, > however. Lost to war? Not in AmE. Lost in the war. I'm more interested in that exploding masonry. The whole sentence is odd, not likely written by a native speaker. > > 2. ____the end of the poem, the speaker imagined himself telling his > > choice-making tale with a sigh. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > exists, not that one has a possibility. 'Chance' is grammatically > correct but does not fit the context. Either "chance" or "opportunity" would go equally well in AmE. There is a possibility that other words would fit. "Time", "means", "ability", and others.  SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email >>> Dear all, >>> Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > that exploding masonry. The whole sentence is odd, not likely > written by a native speaker. "Lost in the war" is certainly more common, but "lost to war" doesn't sound at all unusual. "We lost him to war." "We lost him to drugs." "We lost her to Tiger." >>> 2. ____the end of the poem, the speaker imagined himself telling his >>> choice-making tale with a sigh. [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > is a possibility that other words would fit. "Time", "means", > "ability", and others. I agree with that. Bill in Kentucky >>>> Dear all, >>>> Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >sound at all unusual. "We lost him to war." "We lost him to drugs." >"We lost her to Tiger." "Lost to" immediately makes sense if you add "due", as in "Lost due to (the) war". Alternatives might be "Lost because of", "Lost in the cause of", etc. SignatureIan > "Lost to" immediately makes sense if you add "due", as in "Lost due to > (the) war". Alternatives might be "Lost because of", "Lost in the cause > of", etc. 'Lost to...' is perfectly normal in British English. >> "Lost to" immediately makes sense if you add "due", as in "Lost due to >> (the) war". Alternatives might be "Lost because of", "Lost in the cause >> of", etc. > > 'Lost to...' is perfectly normal in British English. Google, with 3 770 000 hits for "lost to war", seems to support you, but it doesn't sound at all normal to me. Signatureathel > > "Lost to" immediately makes sense if you add "due", as in "Lost due to > > (the) war". Alternatives might be "Lost because of", "Lost in the cause > > of", etc. > > 'Lost to...' is perfectly normal in British English. Canadian as well AFAICT; "due to" is overused and rarely informative. SignatureOdysseus > > > 1. With masonry exploding aruond him, he courageously fought for those > > > who had been lost ___ war. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > that exploding masonry. The whole sentence is odd, not likely > written by a native speaker. The expression doesn't seem odd to me, but the thought certainly does. If they've already been lost to war, how can he fight for them now? ¬R >> 'Opportunity' would also be correct. One says that a possibility >> exists, not that one has a possibility. 'Chance' is grammatically >> correct but does not fit the context. > Either "chance" or "opportunity" would go equally well in AmE. There > is a possibility that other words would fit. "Time", "means", > "ability", and others. A slight correction to my above post - I meant that 'choice' is grammatically correct but does not fit the context. >>> Dear all, >>> Please help me with the following questions. Thank you very much! [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > that exploding masonry. The whole sentence is odd, not likely > written by a native speaker. That's the problem with lots of the questions we get asked: we have to decide which of the "right" and the "wrong" answers are better, wghen neither of them sounds right Signatureathel |
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