Writing Questions

<p>Could someone help me with these writing IE questions? I redid the W sections in the BB and these are the questions I got wrong/right and didn't understand the concepts being tested.</p>

<p>(Something of) a phenomenon (in) the entertainment world, political satirists (are admired) by conservatives and radicals (alike).</p>

<p>Why is A not wrong? I thought something was singular while the subject is plural. Is something refering to "a phenomenon"? The answer is no error</p>

<p>Professor Chen repeated (the point that) the hero, if (given) the chance (to relive) the moment, would choose to (do it). </p>

<p>I got this question right. I know "do it" is wrong and it does sound weird to me, but I would like to know the grammatically reason behind why it is wrong. Can it not refer to the action of the hero reliving the moment? Is there no referent for "it".</p>

<p>Social scientists (agree that) a system (for exchanging) goods and services is (not only) present but also (of necessity) in all societies. </p>

<p>I also got this right but I want to know the grammatical concept this question is testing. I realize that not only.... but also.... is a correlative conjunction and should link two phrases/ words of equal grammatical value (yes?). Present is an adjective in this sentence i think but what is "of necessity" considered as? I thought it was also an adjective. </p>

<p>In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the main reason that Macbeth kills the king is a result of when Lady Macbeth tells him that he will be considered a coward if he does not.</p>

<p>[A] that Macbeth kills the king is a result of when
** that Macbeth kills the king is that
[C] that Macbeth kills the king results from when
[D] for Macbeth killing the king is because
[E] for Macbeth in killing the king is that</p>

<p>Is reason for... because redundant? Is it also idiomatically incorrect to say reason FOR? Would B be correct?</p>

<p>EDIT:</p>

<p>I got this right too, but could someone please explain the difference between "more than"/"over" </p>

<ol>
<li>The survey (showed that) most shoppers who drive prefer the mall (more than) downtown stores (simply because) finding parking is (less difficult) at the mall. (more than is incorrect)</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks for all the help!</p>

<p>Jason</p>

<p>Anybody? 10 char</p>

<p><a href=“Something%20of”>quote</a> a phenomenon (in) the entertainment world, political satirists (are admired) by conservatives and radicals (alike).</p>

<p>Why is A not wrong? I thought something was singular while the subject is plural. Is something refering to “a phenomenon”? The answer is no error

[/quote]

“Something of a phenomenon” describes “political satirists” as a whole in an abstract way. It is like saying, “Those people are a pain to deal with.” You wouldn’t say, “Those people are pains to deal with,” because “pain” does not have discreteness to it and hence “pains” is not a word in this context. Pain is abstract, so it is not countable. That is one reason. Another reason is that the entire group of people is being called a pain. It is not like each individual person is a pain and thus the people are pains. Similarly, the political satirists are something of a phenomenon. This means that they are to some extent a phenomenon. They are not “phenomenons” or “somethings of a phenomenon.” The number of two nouns do not have to be consistent with each other if the statement is abstract.

“It” is a pronoun, so it must refer to a noun. The idea is that the referent should be the action of the hero’s reliving the moment, but that action, “reliving,” is not explicitly stated in the sentence. The only nouns in the pertinent clause are chance and moment, neither of which you can “do.” What the sentence is saying is that he would choose to relive the moment. “To relive the moment” is an action, not a noun, so we refer back to it not with a pronoun but with the word “so.” “So” means “in the manner indicated” (it is an adverb), so the referent isn’t something concrete like a noun. In fact, it has no referent because it is an adverb. It just describes some verb by associating it with a manner previously described. </p>

<p>EXAMPLES (with alternative sentences with pronouns instead of the adverb so indented and corresponding ideas italicized):</p>

<p>“I ate an apple, and tomorrow I will do so again.”
Eating apples is a chore, and I will have to do it to be healthy.” (“Eating apples” is a gerund/noun.)
“You think apples are better than oranges. I don’t believe so.”
You made a statement that apples are better than oranges. I don’t believe it/you.” (“It” refers to the statement. “You” just refers to the person the subject doesn’t believe.)
“I was not able to make it, and I told her so.”
Not being able to make it is a sad thing. I told her about it.

“Of necessity” is a prepositional phrase, so it is not parallel with the adjective “present” as it should be for stylistic reasons. It is also more wordy than “necessary,” which means the same thing but uses a simpler form. Prepositional phrases kind of act like adjectives do (e.g., the form “they are of necessity” is grammatical), but they are not equal forms as far as parallelism is concerned.

B is the correct answer. “Reason for” is grammatically correct. By stating a “reason for X,” you are justifying X, an action. For example, your reason for killing a man might be that you wanted to steal his money. “Reason . . . is because” is redundant and incorrect. “Reason . . . is that” is the correct form.

“Prefer X more than Y” is redundant because “prefer” already means “like more than” or “like better.” You can only “like better” or “prefer” one thing; the other thing is not preferred at all. “Prefer X more than Y” implies that you prefer X more than you prefer Y, meaning you prefer Y a little bit–just not more than X, a statement which is illogical. You prefer X to Y, or you prefer X over Y. Prefer X to Y is more popular and considered the standard than prefer X over Y, but both are correct.</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks Crazybandit!</p>

<p>Could someone also explain this question?</p>

<ol>
<li>Explaining modern art is impossible, partly because of its complexity but largely because of it rapidly changing </li>
</ol>

<p>[A] of it rapidly changing
** it makes rapid changes
[C] of the rapidity with which it changes
[D] changing it is rapid
[E] it changes so rapid</p>

<p>Why is A wrong? Also choice D of the Macbeth question is incorrect due to “reason… is because” right?</p>

<ol>
<li>You need parallelism. Because of its (noun) but largely because of (noun)</li>
</ol>

<p>No adjective should replace the “of (noun)”.
Because they don’t have “of”, B, D, E are wrong.</p>

<p>And if you look a t the choices, A is implying that the Modern Art is the reason. however the reader can infer that it is the RAPIDITY that is the reason. So the answer is B</p>

<p>I mean C. My bad haha</p>

<p>I read this sentence from the NY times article we had in class:</p>

<p>“After reading these messages… she hanged herself in her bathroom with a belt”</p>

<p>Would hung also be acceptable here? If not why?</p>

<p>If “hang” means to kill by suspending one’s neck, then the past tense of the word has tended to be and is now, in standard, hanged. If “hang” means anything else, like, for example, to attach something on a hook, then the word in the past tense is hung.</p>

<p>“He was sentenced to be hanged.”
“He was so depressed about his life that he hanged himself.”</p>

<p>“He hung the mistletoe over the shower head.”
“The paintings were hung delicately.”</p>