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Question According to the author, what is very important to become a genius?

hirashin

Sempai
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8 Apr 2004
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Hello, Hirashin again.

Would you check all my sentences?
3
①Did Edison like to read? Yes, he did.
②Was Whitman born in Brooklyn? No, he wasn't.
③According to the author, what is very important to become a genius? Hard work is.
④Did Edison sleep long? No, he didn't.
⑤Has Whitman ever lived on Long Island? Yes, he has.

4 指示に従って、次の日本語を英語にしなさい。形が変化する語句は適切な
形にすること。語数が合っていなくても部分点を与える事があります。 16点
①彼の詩は多くの人に批判された。(poetry, criticize を用いて7語で) [3点]
His poetry was criticized by many people.
②ホイットマンもエジソンも両方有名です。(bothを用いて6語で) [2点]
Both Whitman and Edison are famous.
③彼らのどちらもここへ来なかった。(5語で) [4点]
Neither of them came here.
④私は,その試験に通るために頑張って勉強した。(study, pass を用いて7語で)[4点]
I studied hard to pass the exam/test.
⑤私の叔父(おじ)は、科学者としてそう言いました。(My で始めsay, so を用い、7語で)[3点]
My uncle said so as a scientist.

Hirashin
 
Everything looks OK.

For 3⑤, because Whitman is dead, it is more natural to say:
Did Whitman ever live on Long Island? Yes, he did.
But what you have is OK.

For 4⑤, "My uncle said so as a scientist." sounds somewhat unnatural, but is a reasonable translation of the Japanese version, so is OK to use, I think.
 
Thank you for the help, joadbres.

Everything looks OK.
For 4⑤, "My uncle said so as a scientist." sounds somewhat unnatural, but is a reasonable translation of the Japanese version, so is OK to use, I think.

How about "My uncle said that as a scientist"? Does this also sound unnatural?
 
How about "My uncle said that as a scientist"? Does this also sound unnatural?

In my opinion, it is equally unnatural.

Neither are significantly unnatural, though, so it is OK to leave the question as you originally had it.
 
Well, I just want to use "as a scientist" or the pattern "as + someone". (~として)

How about these?
She joined the team as a scientist/nurse.
He bacame/got famous as a soccer player.
He came here as the president of the company.
 
All look good. Just a small point though, I think I know why you wrote "Edison slept long" in 3, no.4, because it was one of your wrong answers in the other thread, but precisely because it was wrong it doesn't make sense to use that as a question. You could say "Did Edison sleep for a long time?" but you don't say "I slept long".
 
Thanks for the help,Michael2.
All look good.
Does this include "My uncle said so as a scientist"?
Just a small point though, I think I know why you wrote "Edison slept long" in 3, no.4, because it was one of your wrong answers in the other thread, but precisely because it was wrong it doesn't make sense to use that as a question.
There are some low-level students in my class. So I think I should include very easy questions. Some of them may not even write, "No, he didn't".
You could say "Did Edison sleep for a long time?" but you don't say "I slept long".
Is it all right to say "Did Edison sleep long"? or is it that I should say "Did Edison sleep for a long time"?
 
Well, I just want to use "as a scientist" or the pattern "as + someone". (~として)

How about these?
She joined the team as a scientist/nurse.
He became/got famous as a soccer player.
He came here as the president of the company.

The first two are fine. The third is awkward.

Is it all right to say "Did Edison sleep long"? or is it that I should say "Did Edison sleep for a long time"?

You could revise your question to be more natural by changing it to one of these:
"Did Edison get [a lot of / lots of / plenty of / much] sleep?" (Answer: No, he didn't.)

If you haven't taught expressions such as "get much sleep" or "get very little sleep", then I think it is OK if you leave the question as you first wrote it. The way you first wrote it is not 100% natural, but is OK, I think.
 
Yes, I think you should change it to "Did Edison sleep for a long time?"
"Did he sleep long?" is incorrect English. It would be fine as a wrong answer in a grammar exercise but not as supposed correct English in a comprehension exercise.
 
Yes, I think you should change it to "Did Edison sleep for a long time?"
"Did he sleep long?" is incorrect English. It would be fine as a wrong answer in a grammar exercise but not as supposed correct English in a comprehension exercise.

I disagree with this. "Did 人 sleep for a long time?" is grammatically correct, but would typically only be used when referring to one day or night, not when discussing someone's sleeping habits over time. In that latter context, it is far more natural to use one of the phrases I suggested, such as "Did Edison get much sleep?"
 
Hirashin,

Do you teach English at a school in Japan?

She joined the team as a scientist/nurse.

This sentence has a special connotation. This emphasizes which job she would work. Maybe she would be a scientist on the team. Maybe she would be a nurse on the team. If we want to emphasize she became a nurse on the team, we would say, "She joined the team as a nurse (and not as a scientist)."
 
Oh, sorry. I meant it includes both "She joined the team as a scientist" and "She joined the team as a nurse."
 
Oh, sorry. I meant it includes both "She joined the team as a scientist" and "She joined the team as a nurse."

There are four ways to say this:
"She joined the team both as a nurse and a scientist."
"She joined the team both as a nurse and as a scientist."
"She joined the team as both a nurse and a scientist."
"She joined the team as both a nurse and as a scientist."
 
There are four ways to say this:
"She joined the team both as a nurse and a scientist."
"She joined the team both as a nurse and as a scientist."
"She joined the team as both a nurse and a scientist."
"She joined the team as both a nurse and as a scientist."

@hirashin 's slash doesn't mean a combination of the terms. It means you can make a sentence with EITHER one of them. Take a look at his next sentence. Obviously, he is not suggesting to include the phrase "became/got famous" within one sentence; he is denoting that you can use either "became" or "got".
 
④Did Edison sleep long? No, he didn't.

Although it may be too late at this point, I have a very simple fix for this.

The original textbook text reads "he slept very little".

You could change your question to "Did Edison sleep much?" or "Did Edison sleep very much?"

This would be grammatically correct, natural English, and would balance well with the textbook text which the students have already learned.
 
Did Edison sleep long?

Hirasahin,

I wanted to share with you how we usually ask and answer "Did Edison sleep much?" in English.

The question, "Did Edison sleep much?" really has two meanings. One is frequency and the other is length of time. For example, we can ask, "Did Edison sleep often?" or "Did Edison sleep for a long time?" and both of these can be expressed by asking, "Did Edison sleep much?"

Next is what I call the Seldom Rule: "In English, we seldom say seldom."

Instead of saying

"He seldom sleeps."

we usually say

"He doesn't sleep that often."
"He doesn't sleep so often."
"He doesn't sleep very often."

It is important that the students learn the use of that/so/very in these situations. I also want to add that, in the case of length of time, we usually don't say "sleep" we say "get (some) sleep".

Instead of saying

"I didn't sleep at all"

it is common to say

"I didn't get any sleep." or "I didn't get any sleep at all." -->

"I didn't get any sleep last night." or "I didn't get any sleep at all last night."

Now we have the example, "I slept very little". If we are talking about length of time, we would usually say

1. "I didn't get that much sleep last night."
2. "I didn't get so much sleep last night."
3. "I didn't get very much sleep last night."
4. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

Answers 1 and 4 are most common.

(By the way, I speak American English. British English may be different.)
 
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