Job Discussion Forums

[Gregor]

Chris_Crossley is right.
OP didn't say where this question appeared. Just that "only one answer is correct." This is not true. If this question appeared on a test of some sort, it was a very poorly written one.

As for correct and incorrect grammar - sure, there are some cut-and-dried cases of what's correct and what is not. But there are also a lot of grey areas. This might be one of them. Only at lower levels would I worry about the some/any question, as in some for statements and any for questions and negatives.

This thread reminds me of the conditionals question that comes up all the time in TEFL. Newer teachers are unfamiliar with the concept until it comes up, unexpected, in a course book. There it is in a book, the rules sound reasonable, so they then teach it (and BELIEVE it) as a hard and fast rule.
But if you dig into the topic a bit, you'll find that it's NOT a hard and fast rule; in fact, it's scarcely a rule at all so much as an observation. Mixing conditionals, if it soulds OK, is FINE. I think we have a similar kind of thing here.
The moral of the story is that grammar is not maths.

[laura1d]

Hi there,

OP here!

The question was actually on a web site of a school that I was considering applying to work at. Only one answer was correct (according to the test).

Thanks again for all your replies. I know that English is not an exact science and agree that if it sounds right then it usually is ...... BUT after living so long overseas the strangest things start to sound 'normal'!!

Cheers
Laura

[merlin]

A poorly written test by a person who only got to headway pre-intermediate.

In Headway Intermediate it stressses that the any= ? or negative and some = positive" is only a general rule to follow 90% of the time. When I was a beginning teacher I fell into this trap - give a rule and then half a year later a student asks "Well what about that rule you gave us last year?" Ummm... err...

The test question is poorly written. Without a wider context to place it in either a or b can be correct.

In the context of a school site writing a test for a prospective teacher to evaluate their knowledge of the English Language, the the only possible answer is B because the writer never got to Headway Intermediate and will not hire you if you tell him his English isn't so good.

[laura1d]

Hi OP here!

Sorry, I was not clear in my post.
The question was on their website and it was written for prospective students - I came across it only as I was being nosey and was looking around their site.

It was not a question that they were asking me.

I read it - knew the answer but couldn't explain why it was B. It was bugging me so I thought I would ask you guys!

Hope that explains it...

Laura

[biffinbridge]

OK, 'any' is clearly the correct answer.DMB correctly pointed out that we can use 'some' in offers,(hi Damo).However,no-one seems to have mentioned the fact that native speakers often use 'some' in the stated form and by altering their intonation give a clear indication of the expected answer.Also,'Is there some milk in the fridge?' can in fact be a kind of request as in- 'give us some then'.

[Chris_Crossley]

[Stephen Jones]

Both 'some' and 'any' are correct. The test is poorly designed.

[moonraven]

Not only are both answers acceptable, math is also not an "exact science" and science is general eschews exactness. In many math problems, for example, the solution may be a positive or negative number--or even a range of numbers.

[Gregor]

Yeah, yeah, maths isn't (aren't? I dunno - I'm American) exact. Everyone gets the POINT, right?