<p>According to no [lesser of an authority than] Parkman, the most momentous event in the history of colonial North America was the expulsion of the French.</p>
<p>a) less of an authority than
c) less an authority as
e) less an authority than (Answer)</p>
<p>All seems grammatically correct to me… please explain why each choice is wrong. </p>
<p>The results of the investigation [belongs less] to the realm of knowledge [than to that of] speculation; the writer [has given] us [more fancy] than fact. </p>
<p>How is “than to that of” wrong? Seemingly, after reading some of the posts on this thread on comparison, everything sounds right. </p>
<p>What is the correct idiomatic form for “inspired”? Is it “inspired by”?</p>
<p>The entire city is “visual to” anyone willing to climb.</p>
<p>first less is a comparison word, so cancel out b. I’m not sure about why “less of” is wrong, however. silverturtle and fresh ya’ll gotta help me out on this again haha.</p>
<p>than to that of is not wrong. “belongs” is wrong because it doesn’t agree with “results.”</p>
<p>yes, inspired by</p>
<p>the word should be visible. visual means “relating to sight”</p>
<p>this was the same question that i posted. ^the reason that “less of…” is incorrect is that the “of” is unwarranted. The word “less” is similar to the word “greater” in terms of the comparative usage, not in terms of definition. If you substitute “greater”, you wouldn’t say “greater of…” right? you would just say “greater than…”. The word “less” works exactly the same way. Therefore, you can cancel out A; thus, you’re left with e.</p>
<p>Quincy took Dan to Derek’s home [for a visit], [never imagining] that five years [would pass] before [seeing] Derek again.
The answer is D. But I think B should be “having never imagined” because till the moment she took Dan to Derek’s home, Quincy had never thought that she would not see Derek again in 5 years. Can anyone help?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Bob wanted to finish his homework completely before his mother had come home from her sister’s house.
The answer is C. i have no clue why. can someone explain?</p></li>
<li><p>Bob could easily have gotten a higher score on his college entrance test if he would have read more in his school career.
Then answers is the underlined part. Grubers book reasons that this is a “contrary to fact past tense”, therefore would should not be there.</p></li>
<li><p>If I would have known more about the person whom i was writing to, i would have written a better answer.
again, the same “contrary to fact past tense” situation here. please explain! and tell me if there is any other way around the question except the given reasoning.</p></li>
<li><p>Opposite to most people i know, annie, a good photographer herself, acutally enjoys seeing the photographs that her friends take on their vacations.
the answers is A. please explain. is opposite to unidiomatic? if so, what is the correct phrase?</p></li>
<li><p>are there essentials i should know about tenses? i get very confused when the word had is supposed to be used or not. please help!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@thieuga–B is correct because the participal phrase, “never imagining…” correctly modifies the noun, Quincy. It is indeed D because “seeing” is ambiguous. Who saw Derek again? Was it the five years? You don’t know. Even though you know what the sentence intended to say, it is not written that way. </p>
<p>@nitcomp—The sentence uses the wrong form of the verb tense. When you say “had come…”, it’s saying thaat the mother came before Bob finsihed his homework, which is not logical. The “had” tense is the “even before tense”. So for example, “I came home exhausted today.” With the “had” tense, it would be “I had come home exhausted today before Jan came home.” So, it’s saying you came before Jan came. These tenses will only arise for sequence of tenses type of problems.</p>
<p>For numbers 2 and 3, I agree with Gruber’s reasoning. I had trouble on this until i learned the correct uses of the conditional tenses. A conditional clause usually has a main clause attached to it. So in your case, “If I would have known more about the person whom i was writing to, i would have written a better answer.”, the part that starts of with “if…” is the conditional and the clause after the comma is the main clause. There are three kinds of conditional tenses:first, second, and third. The first conditional clause is the present tense, in which case you use “will” in your main clause. The second conditional clause is the past tense, in which case you use “would” in the main clause. The third condtional clause is the past perfect tense, in which case you use “would have + past participle”. In your scenario for 3, your using the “would have + past participle” in your main clause, which necesstiates the use of the past perfect tense in your conditional clause. Therefore your should sentence should say something like " If I had known more about the person whom i was writing to, i would have written a better answer."
For number 2 (i don’t know why im going backwards :)), you’re using “could have + past participle”, which is a perfectly acceptable substitute for “would have + participle”, and therefore it requires the substitute of past participle (again). Your sentence should say "
Bob could easily have gotten a higher score on his college entrance test if he had read more in his school career"</p>
<p>For number 4, im not sure the correct idiom. I would say “opposite of”</p>
<p>“A grammar book of Cambridge Uni Press says that with a phrase referring to measurement, quantity or amount, singular verb is preferred. Their example is ‘The fifty pounds he gave me was soon spent’. Has anyone here encountered a situation that can prove or disprove this thesis?”</p>
<p>silverturtle, can you explain when this is the right rule to follow? For example, Eight dogs were in the park. “Eight dogs was in the park.” Sounds wrong… or perhaps the rule refers to measurements only. like length, volume, etc.?</p>
<p>Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he failed to keep either of them after the election.
(A) Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he
(C) Although the candidate made promises both to cut taxes and improves services, he </p>
<p>i got stuck between A and C the answer is (C) WHAT’S the difference? </p>
<p>[Although] the coach [had predicted] that the team would have a winning season, the [fans were] surprised by the [success of] the young, inexperienced players. No Error</p>
<p>The answer is no error but doesn’t the success should be plural since it’s indicating the success of player"s" </p>
<p>Princeton University officials first [broke with] a tradition [of awarding] honorary degrees only [to men] when they awarded [it] to author Willa Cather. No error</p>
<p>broke with?? is there an actual idiom for broke with? btw the answer is “it” </p>
<p>His love of politics [led] [him] to volunteer in local campaigns [as well] as [a job] in a government office in the state capital. [No error]<br>
answer is a job</p>
<p>Now that Michiko [finished] the research, she feels [reasonably confident] [about writing] her paper on the [rise of] the progressive movement in the United States. No error
answer is finished</p>
<p>The condition known as laryngitis [usually causes] the vocal cords and surrounding tissue to swell, [thus] preventing the cords [to move] [freely]. No error
answer is to move</p>
<p>I got so many wrong and I am so depressed now:( I need logical reasons for my wrong answers will u guys help me out? I would really appreciate it thx:)</p>
<p>When deciding whether the quantity is a number (in which case you use a plural verb unless the number is one) or an amount (in which case a singular verb is always used), ask yourself whether the sentence is describing how much or how many of something. In your dog example, the sentence isn’t saying how much dog there is but rather how many dogs, so the plural verb is right. </p>
<p>Examples:</p>
<p>“Twenty minutes IS all the time you get for the quiz.” (Describing how much time, not how many minutes)</p>
<p>“Thirthy percent of the class IS likely to fail the quiz.” (Describing how much of the class, not how many students)</p>
<p>“Twenty-five gophers ARE needed.” (Describing how many gophers are needed, not how much gopher)</p>
<p>“Twenty-five pounds of gopher meat IS needed to make a greater stew.” (Describing how much gopher meat, not how many gophers)</p>
<p>Which structure is correct?
1, I was a musician, a lawyer and a businessman.
2, I was a musician, lawyer and businessman.
I saw both of them in real tests. :)).</p>
<p>To be honest, I think for the first question, the answer should be one for the sake of parallelism. Maybe some1 else can explain question 1. </p>
<p>For the second one, it should NOT be successes because this is in terms of the success as a whole, not for individual players. Although, I would think the “Although” is not the correct subordinating conjunction. Silver, can u explain that to me?</p>
<p>It would be “it” because it’s referring to the honarary degrees (plural). IDK about the idiom. Word of advice: if you see more than one thing wrong in a sentence, go with the one that would be most likely tested. </p>
<p>it would be job because there should be a verb, like “work” in place of “job” </p>
<p>it should be “had finished” because Michika feels confident after he finishes his research. It’s a sequence of tense type of problem. </p>
<p>The correct idiom is “preventing…from…” not preventing to.</p>
<p>Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he failed to keep either of them after the election.
(A) Although the candidate promised both to cut taxes and improve services, he
(C) Although the candidate made promises both to cut taxes and improves services, he</p>
<p>This is a problematic question. The poster says the answer is (C), but (A) is an acceptable answer.</p>
<p>[Although] the coach [had predicted] that the team would have a winning season, the [fans were] surprised by the [success of] the young, inexperienced players. No Error</p>
<p>Comment by fresh101,</p>
<p>“For the second one, it should NOT be successes because this is in terms of the success as a whole, not for individual players. Although, I would think the ‘Although’ is not the correct subordinating conjunction. Silver, can u explain that to me?”</p>
<p>“success” is indeed acceptable because, as fresh101 said, the players experienced a collective success. “Although” is also acceptable because it is linking two clauses of initial logical contradiction: if the coach had predicted success, one would expect the fans to have little surprise when the team did succeed.</p>
<p>^Oh I C. That makes sense about the use of “although”.</p>
<p>can’t you use past perfect for the present tense? It’s like saying that something happened before the present time, which makes sense, doesn’t it?</p>