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Another set of questions

hirashin

Sempai
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8 Apr 2004
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Dear native English speakers,
Would you help me with my exams again?

Q1 Do the questions make sense?
Choose the correct word.
1) On his first visit (in, on, to) the restaurant, he was shown to a table by the window.
2) It was the volume of the meal so (few, little, small) today

Q2 Does each question have only one correct answer? (Am I making sense?)
① Those birds ( ) to my garden every morning.
ア)come イ)are come ウ)is come エ)is comes
④There ( ) some big cherry trees around here when I was a kid.
ア)is イ)are ウ)was エ)were
⑤My father ( ) three cameras now.
ア)have イ)haves ウ)has エ)is having
⑥The lesson was ( ) boring that I fell asleep.
ア)very イ)so ウ)really エ)such
⑦Yesterday was ( ) a beautiful day that we decided to go on a picnic.
ア)very イ)so ウ)really エ)such
⑧Tom likes tennis, and so ( ).
ア)I am イ)I do ウ)am I エ)do I
⑨I was poor ( ) math in school.
ア)at イ)for ウ)on エ)to
⑰( ) there any water in the bottle when you saw it?
ア)Is イ)Was ウ)Are エ)Were
⑱I have breakfast ( ) seven every morning.
ア)in イ)at ウ)on エ)for
⑲I usually study English ( ) the morning.
ア)at イ)in ウ)on エ)for
⑳A small difference leads ( ) success in the future.
ア)to イ)for ウ)on エ)up

Q3 Do all the sentences below sound right?
(1) Does your car have an air-conditioner?
(2) My brother sometimes runs around here.
(3) You'll have to go now, otherwise./or you'll miss your bus.
(4) As I went up, the air became thinner. 上るにつれて、空気が薄くなった。
(5) Right-handed people probably don't realize the fact. 右利きの人達はおそらくその事実に気がつかない。

Q4 Do all the sentences below sound right?
①When Tom visited the restaurant for the first time, the volume of the meal was very small.
②When Tom visited the restaurant for the first time, he sat at a table in the corner.
③When Tom visited the restaurant again, the meal was not delicious.
④When Tom visited the restaurant again, they served a lot of food for the price.
⑤When Tom visited the restaurant again, he ordered the same meal he had last time.

Q5 Do all the sentences below sound right?
①Tom liked to sit by the window and watch the people on the street.
②Tom visited the restaurant only once.
③Tom liked to sit at a table in the corner.
④When Tom first visited the restaurant, he thought the price of the meal was reasonable.
⑤The volume of the meal Tom had on his second visit was only a quarter as large as the volume
served last time.

Even a little help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Hirashin
 
2) It was the volume of the meal so (few, little, small) today

I'm guessing by the context the intended answer would be either little or small. I'm not sure what you're trying to say in this sentence though, it seems like an incomplete thought or an unnatural way to state something.

⑥The lesson was ( ) boring that I fell asleep.
ア)very イ)so ウ)really エ)such

This one has only one correct answer but could have another answer if the sentence was slightly different. If you change "that" to "so" in the original sentence the answer could easily be "really". The lesson was really boring, so I fell asleep. It could be slightly confusing but maybe it just conflicts with how I would naturally say something like the sentence.

(5) Right-handed people probably don't realize the fact. 右利きの人達はおそらくその事実に気がつかない
This sentence seems to be incomplete, but seeing the section it's under this may be intended. Usually if this is following a sentence of something they don't realize you would change "the" to "this".
For example: It can be difficult for left-handed people to write as they accidentally rest their hand on sentences they have just written. Right-handed people probably don't realize this fact.

①When Tom visited the restaurant for the first time, the volume of the meal was very small.

I understand what you're trying to say here but this sounds very unnatural.

③When Tom visited the restaurant again, the meal was not delicious.

While this would sound really natural in Japanese it doesn't sound very natural in English. Normally we would say not appetizing or get rid of the not and replace with an antonym of delicious, such as disgusting.

⑤The volume of the meal Tom had on his second visit was only a quarter as large as the volume
served last time.

This sounds unnatural to me. I think I would say something like, "On Tom's second visit, his food was only a quarter of the size it was last time.".

I hope this helps. If you have any questions or need clarification please don't hesitate to ask.
 
> 2) It was the volume of the meal so (few, little, small) today
This one doesn't make sense. Maybe it should be:
The volume of the meal was so (few, little, small) today.

Several of your examples use volume for meals. I think it's ok for language learning but I don't think it's used that way so much. At least not where I'm from. Usually I'd say the quantity or amount of food.

> Right-handed people probably don't realize the fact.
This one is correct I suppose but somewhat odd. Makes one wonder, what fact we are talking about.
I'd say something like:
Right-handed people probably don't realize the difficulty.
Then I can imagine we are probably talking about some difficulty that left-handed people encounter.

> When Tom visited the restaurant again, the meal was not delicious.
This one is fine grammatically but not something one would really say.
I'd probably say "not very good" or "terrible." That reminds me, when my son was a toddler, he didn't know the word 嫌い so every time he didn't like some food or something he would say 大好きじゃない。

All the others look fine to me.
 
Thank you for the help, OoTmaster and mdchachi.
As you two pointed out, I made a mistake in "It was the volume of the meal so (few, little, small) today".

The sentence in the original is
"Why was the volume of the meal so small today?"
Can you also use "little" instead of "small"?

To mdchachi:
I'd probably say "not very good" or "terrible." That reminds me, when my son was a toddler, he didn't know the word 嫌い so every time he didn't like some food or something he would say 大好きじゃない。

Does your son speak English and Japanese?

Hirashin
 
I was unsure of your context earlier. That's why I chose either little and/or small. In that context small is the only correct word.
 
OoTmaster, how about these?
①a)When Tom visited the restaurant for the first time, he thought the volume of the meal they served was very small.
b)When Tom visited the restaurant for the first time, he found the volume of the meal they served was very small.

③a)When Tom visited the restaurant again, the meal was not very good.

I think I would say something like, "On Tom's second visit, his food was only a quarter of the size it was last time.".

How about this?
On Tom's second visit, his meal was only a quarter the size of the one he had last time.

The sentence in the original is like this:
He ordered the same meal as he did last time, but the volume of the meal was only a quarter as large as the volume served a few days before.

Hirashin
 
I think those work very well. I would however have to agree with mdchachi and say that another word besides volume would be more appropriate.

The sentence in the original is like this:
He ordered the same meal as he did last time, but the volume of the meal was only a quarter as large as the volume served a few days before.
I would say this sentence more like this personally.

He ordered the same meal as he did last time, but it was only a quarter the size of the one a few days before.
 
Thanks for your ongoing help, OoTmaster.

I think those work very well. I would however have to agree with mdchachi and say that another word besides volume would be more appropriate.

Then the original sentence may have been written by a Japanese. I wonder how British people view this usage of "volume"..

To mdchachi
二つの学校だけど日本に住んでいません。
ミシガン州の現地校と補習校なのです。

Wow! Why do you make him learn Japanese, if I may ask?

Hirashin
 
Wow! Why do you make him learn Japanese, if I may ask?
Because he's half Japanese. Hopefully it will help him in later life. I'm not sure how long we will continue; it's up to my wife (and him). Maybe up to 5th grade at least. I didn't start learning Japanese until I was 20. If he wants to continue, he will have a much better foundation than I did.
 
I'm not going to read and check all of the sentences, as there are too many of them, and it seems that @OoTmaster and @mdchachi did a good job of identifying the most problematic sentences.

One other that caught my eye is:
Q5
④When Tom first visited the restaurant, he thought the price of the meal was reasonable.

When I first read this sentence, it was slightly awkward to me because of "the meal." You can infer which meal is meant, but to be clearer and more natural, I would recommend using "his meal." If you aren't only referring to the meal Tom ordered, but to the prices of all meals in general at that restaurant, you could say "he thought the prices were reasonable."
 
I found an example of "not delicious" in the listening test attached to the textbook we use.
A woman who seems to be a native speaker says:
Tom complained because the food was not delicious.
What do you think?
Hirashin
 
I don't think it's wrong per say, it's just not something you would hear often. Normally if you heard a sentence like that there would be a follow up question, like "What was wrong with the food?". So normally you would replace not delicious with what was wrong with the food. For example: Tom complained because the food was bland/too spicy/over cooked/dry.
 
I found an example of "not delicious" in the listening test attached to the textbook we use.
A woman who seems to be a native speaker says:
Tom complained because the food was not delicious.
What do you think?
Hirashin

It's not wrong, but it's not the most natural way to say it. I will try to explain.

In English, "delicious" is usually taken to mean "exceptionally good tasting." So to say that something is "not delicious" is the same as saying it is "not exceptionally good tasting," which is somewhat ambiguous. It's ambiguous because such a comment could be interpreted as the food being poor tasting, being average tasting or even being good tasting, but just not exceptionally good tasting. Usually, though, most people hearing that expression would assume that the food tasted bad.

While the phrase "not delicious" is no doubt used by native speakers from time to time, it is more natural and clearer to say something like "not very good." The quoted example could be said as "Tom complained because the food tasted bad."

However, having said all that...

For the purposes of creating an English test, if you prefer to use "not delicious," I consider it acceptable to use. It is not grammatically incorrect, and is at most slightly awkward. It is an expression that can be understood by native speakers.
 
Thanks for the help, OoTmaster and lincstreff.

By the way, lincstreff. Where are you originally from? Are you living in Korea?
 
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