Education costs money. But then so does ignorance. claus moser, baron moser, British statistician
1. In some supermarkets, you can see a sign
10 items or less
What is wrong with this sign?
Why is the following sentence incorrect?
The amount of students who came to the meeting made the dean look for a larger auditorium.
Can you correct a mistake in the following sentence?
After having read The Giver, I decided to watch the movie based on the book. Unfortunately, I realized that the movie was different than the book.
A newspaper article warned the citizens of an eminent aftermath if they did not prepare for the upcoming hurricane.
Can you proofread this sentence?
It was a manhunt night, and the town residents were not allowed to leave their houses until further notice. More than that, they were advised to stay away from their windows. All through the night, people could hear the reports that confirmed that it was safer to stay indoors. When the ban was lifted in the morning, people could see the indents from bullets on their houses.
What is the meaning of the word 'report' in this context?
Scroll down to find the answers
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Questions
Answers
"Less" is a comparative degree of the adjective "little," which is used only with non-count nouns; therefore, it cannot be used with the word "items", which is a count noun. With count nouns, we must use a comparative degree of the adjective "few", which is "fewer". The correct sign should say "10 items or fewer'.
Note: count nouns are the ones that we can use with any number, for example, one pencil, two trees, etc. Non-count nouns are the ones that we cannot use with any number, for example, coffee, milk, snow, happiness, etc.
Even though the words 'amount' and 'number' are close in meaning, they are used differently. The word 'amount' is used with non-count nouns, while the word 'number' is used with count nouns. Therefore, since the word 'students' is a count noun, the sentence must read "The number of students who came to the meeting made the dean look for a larger auditorium."
In English, many word combinations require pure memorization. One of them is 'different from'. Thus, the second sentence must read "Unfortunately, I realized that the movie was different from the book."
You have to be aware that in English, we have many words that are very close in sound, though they are not homophones or homographs; it's no surprise that they have different meanings. For example, 'eminent' means 'famous, prominent', while 'imminent' means 'unavoidable'. Thus, we need to say "The citizens were warned of the imminent aftermath..."
As many other words, the word 'report' has many different meanings. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the only matching contextual definition of the word 'report' is 'an explosive noise'. In the article, the reporter was writing about multiple gunshots that were heard throughout the night. No wonder that people could see indents from bullets on their houses.
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