<p>Hello again! </p>
<p>I have a writing question:</p>
<p>Not very particular (in) nesting (sites), house wrens (may nest) in birdhouses, mailboxes, building crevices- even in pockets (of) hanging laundry. (No Error) </p>
<p>I immediately crossed out answers choices: (of), (sites), and (may nest). </p>
<p>I was left with (No error) and (in). I felt that there was something wrong with the "particular in" idiomatic wording (After doing a bunch of SAT practice, you gain this strange ability of "Sat instinct") :) and chose (in). The "particular in" is indeed unidiomatic, but I do not fully understand why it is unidiomatic. Can someone please explain why? </p>
<p>Also, how do you confidently tackle IDIOM questions w/o shooting blindly in darkness?</p>
<p>English-speaker instinct*</p>
<p>Unless the birds are being particular <about> something whilst being in their test, the sentence is wrong. The birds are not doing that. Instead, the sentence describes the birds’ nesting habits. They aren’t too choosy <about> where they nest. In other words, they aren’t particular <about> where they nest. “In” should be “about.”</about></about></about></p>
<p>As for how to solve idiom questions…</p>
<p>usually it will come naturally. The exception is if one isn’t a native English speaker, in which case idiom questions can become a lot harder. If you really break down what the words mean outside of the sentence it might also help. </p>
<p>If one is particular, then it makes sense that it would be “about” (used to indicate the subject of something said or written), and not"in."</p>
<p>Usually SAT prep books have sections on idioms. You can find lots of internet resources to practice.</p>
<p>[Self-Study</a> Idiom Quizzes (ESL, EFL)](<a href=“http://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html]Self-Study”>Self-Study Idiom Quizzes (ESL, EFL))</p>