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Would you check my English problems?

hirashin

Sempai
Donor
8 Apr 2004
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Dear native English speakers,
would you check my English Problems?

No.1
How can those with plenty of food help those who don't have enough? Some people in Japan came up with a simple but very effective answer to that question.

According to the United Nations, more than 900 million people worldwide are thought to have too little food. Most of these people live in developing countries, where many jobs are poorly paid. People with such jobs often cannot buy enough food for themselves or their families to eat. On the other hand, a large number of people in developed countries, which include Japan and the U.S., suffer from health problems caused by eating too much.
A Japanese project known as "Table for Two" (TFT) is trying to help solve these problems. The name is meant to suggest that a person in a developed country and a person in a developing country can eat at the same virtual table. In Japan, you can order a meal recognized as healthy by TFT. Twenty yen extra is taken for every such meal. This money is sent to countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, and Malawi, where it is used to pay for healthy school lunches. In this way, TFT encourages healthy eating here in Japan and provides good meals for schoolchildren in distant countries.

Q. Choose one that agrees with the passage above.
(a) Most of the people who don't have enough food live in developed countries.
(b) Most of the people living in developed countries suffer from health problem.
(c) If you want to join the TFT group, you have to pay twenty yen.
(d) If you order meals TFT recognized as healthy, you can help schoolchildren in developing countries.


No.2
The TFT project was started in the cafeterias of six Japanese companies in 2007. The people who set up the project decided that just twenty yen was enough to cover the cost of one school lunch in a developing country. One of them, Kogure Masahisa, says that this small gift can connect us to poor people living in countries far away. "Giving twenty yen shows that we are responsible citizens of the world," he says.
The school lunches TFT provides are both hot and healthy. Cooked meals made with cornflour, beans, and vegetables are served regularly. If this service were stopped, the children would just eat uncooked food such as bananas or tomatoes. This is not to say that bananas and tomatoes are not healthy—of course, they are. However, cooking food adds flavor to it and makes it tastier.
By the end of 2008, more than one hundred companies, universities, and hospitals had joined the TFT project. Now, food and drink items that TFT considers healthy are being offered by cafés, convenience stores, and even vending machines. In total, TFT had been able to provide over thirty-five million meals as of September 2015. The number has continued to grow rapidly.

Q. Choose one that does not agree with the passage above.
(a) The TFT project was started in Japan in 2007.
(b) In 2007, only six Japanese companies joind the TFT project.
(c) Kogure Masahisa is one of the members who set up the TFT project.
(d) You can enjoy food TFT recognize as healthy at some cafés.

Thanks in advance.
Hirashin
 
Looks good. I think answers are (d) and (b).

Small typos:
suffer from health problem => suffer from health problems
joind => joined
TFT recognize => TFT recognizes or TFT recognized
 
There is not enough information given in passage 1 to clearly conclude that (b) is wrong.

There is not enough information given in passage 2 to clearly conclude that (b) is a false statement. Although more than 100 companies had joined by the end of 2008, and it is likely that many of these joined in 2007, the passage does not clearly state how many companies had joined in 2007.

Your answers rely too much on "fuzzy logic". Although this might be OK in Japan, in other countries some students would complain about these questions.

Doesn't the company that provides your textbook also provide CDs or DVDs with suggested test questions? Why don't you use these instead of trying to create your own questions? Creating good multiple choice questions is difficult.
 
There is not enough information given in passage 1 to clearly conclude that (b) is wrong.
I think the point is to identify what is supported by the passage, not to conclude what might or might not be correct in actual fact.

There is not enough information given in passage 2 to clearly conclude that (b) is a false statement. Although more than 100 companies had joined by the end of 2008, and it is likely that many of these joined in 2007, the passage does not clearly state how many companies had joined in 2007.
Same comment here. I don't think that's the intent to "clearly conclude" anything beyond what's written. What is supported by the passage and what isn't?

I do agree that these questions are tricky. I'm sure many students will get them wrong.
 
I don't think my questions are too tricky. I'm sure most of the students will choose the right answers. They know they should not choose a choice that is not clearly written in the text.
 
I don't think my questions are too tricky. I'm sure most of the students will choose the right answers. They know they should not choose a choice that is not clearly written in the text.
Your students are more advanced than I thought! Be sure to come back here and let us know the results.
 
Interesting. I would agree with JB here. I think in western countries questions regarding passages like this are usually quite definitive, not just correct by default because not enough information was provided, as in (2). An interesting cultural difference.

However, I agree that I don't see how you could say (B) in (1) was wrong.

"a large number of people in developed countries, which include Japan and the U.S., suffer from health problems caused by eating too much."
b) Most of the people living in developed countries suffer from health problem.

This would never pass scrutiny. You can't say "a large number of people" is definitively not "most people".
 
It's been a long time since I've taken a test like this but in my day the standard was "the most correct answer" not what's definitively proven not to be a possible answer.
1 (B) could be true but it's not supported by the text and 1 (D) is supported.
So the answer should be pretty obvious if the test taker is reading it carefully.
 
Well, it depends how you word the question sometimes, but most professionally produced tests have inarguable answers. The first one I found here,
TOEFL ITP: Level 1 Section 3 Sample Questions
is very clear and definitive.
The point with 1(B) is precisely that you could argue that it was supported by the text by equating "large number of X" with "most X"
 
1 (B) could be true but it's not supported by the text and 1 (D) is supported.
So the answer should be pretty obvious if the test taker is reading it carefully.

Obvious to a native speaker, sure. But these are students studying English as a second language. The choices should be clearer for such students.
 
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