Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alphalfa]

I was asked to check a series of questions one of my KT's prepared for the Middle School English exam next week.

In my review , I came across the following :

1. A: Give me a piece of cheese , please.
B: Here it is.

*this is one of four choices Ss must choose from - Ss must choose the grammatically incorrect one. The example in 1. is NOT grammatically incorrect according to the KT's. I changed the example in 1. to:
A: Pass me a piece of cheese , please.
B: Here you are.
*you don't pass food in your hand. You pass it on a dish, a napkin but you don't touch it with your hands*

2. A: What do you need to make pork cutlet?
B: Well, I'm really not sure.

*this is one of four choices Ss must choose from - Ss must choose the grammatically incorrect one. I first had a problem with the word'make' in the question but decided the food form should be changed -from pork cutlet to something else.

3. A story in a box . It begins..

There once lived an old woman who was always worrying about her
two sons...
[ directly from MS TEXTBOOK pg 100 ]

* I changed the sentence to :

There once lived an old woman who always worried about her two
sons.

I was told by my KT that the beginning to the reading passage could not be changed.

4. The story from 3. continued in a box. It ends with...

The woman smiled, "That's true. I always looked on the bad side of
things. From now on, I'm going to look on the bright side of things.
[directly from MS textbook pg 105 ]

* in this case, I had the choice to either change the word 'bad' to 'dark' OR
change the word 'bright' to 'good'. Bad and bright are not opposites.

*again, I was told by the KT that the passage in the box could not be
changed.

What do you guys think?

[peacemaker]

Your changes seem unnecessary to me. I see nothing wrong with the original sentences, except for the dark side, bright side thing, that seems a little weird.

[poet13]

I have no idea why you would change 1, 2, or 3, but I agree with your change in number 4.

[alphalfa]

I changed the example in 1. to:
A: Pass me a piece of cheese , please.
B: Here you are.
*first, 'give me' is not a polite way to ask for something. I think 'pass me' is better.

* second, 'Here it is' suggests to me the person in B. gives the piece of cheese with their hand. You don't pass food in your hand. You pass it on a dish/a napkin but you don't touch it with your hands and give it to someone. 'Here you are' suggests to the reader the cheese is on a dish/a napkin.

2. A story in a box . It begins..

There once lived an old woman who was always worrying about her
two sons...
[ directly from MS2 TEXTBOOK pg 100 ]

* I changed the sentence to :

There once lived an old woman who always worried about her two
sons.

**'lived' is past tense, as is 'was'. 'worrying' is present continous(now). The context of the story is in the past not in the present.


3. The story from 2. continued in a box. It ends with...

The woman smiled, "That's true. I always looked on the bad side of
things. From now on, I'm going to look on the bright side of things.
[directly from MS textbook pg 105 ]

* in this case, I had the choice to either change the word 'bad' to 'dark' OR change the word 'bright' to 'good'. Bad and bright are not opposites.


I agree with the posts on this one(3), but what do you think of the kind of mistakes written in MS textbooks being used in a final exam?

[littlelisa]

"was worrying" is past continuous. No mistake. It still continues the story in past tense.

[Woland]

None of them are "ungrammatical." People mistake "ungrammatical" for "unexpected" or "anomalous" but they are not the same thing. I could go into detail here, and may later, but right now I've got a thesis defense to prep for.

[poet13]

"I changed the example in 1. to:
A: Pass me a piece of cheese , please.
B: Here you are.
*first, 'give me' is not a polite way to ask for something. I think 'pass me' is better.

* second, 'Here it is' suggests to me the person in B. gives the piece of cheese with their hand. You don't pass food in your hand. You pass it on a dish/a napkin but you don't touch it with your hands and give it to someone. 'Here you are' suggests to the reader the cheese is on a dish/a napkin. "

I thought the question was of correct grammar, not what is polite or what it suggests. I think the grammar was correct in the first place.

As far as what it suggest? Well, I think that suggesting that pass means on a plate or a napkin, and that give suggests by the hand is purely a personal preference. Me? Give or pass...by the hand if it's convenient, or maybe speared on a knife or a fork if less, and the whole plate if it's messy...

[faster]

None of the examples needs to be changed. They're all acceptable.

In #4, while it's true that "dark" is a more appropriate contrast-word for "bright," it's not idiomatic. "I always looked on the dark side of things"? "Dark side" might be used to denote evil in a George Lucas kind of way, but not to denote pessimism (at least in common parlance).

[ajuma]

Ok...what if it's NOT food? If I said "Could you please pass me a fork", I certainly wouldn't expect it to be passed on a napkin, plate or anything else!

Simply adding "Please" to the "give me" sentence would make it polite enough for me!

[poet13]

The expression used in sports is pass too.
Can you imagine?
"Elway drops back to give. He looks left, right, he finds a receiver open in the middle and gives..."

[bacasper]

None of the original examples is grammatically incorrect.

[rhinocharge64]

Pedentic O.P. Are you a grammar Nazi by any chance?

[poet13]

"Pedentic O.P. Are you a grammar Nazi by any chance?"

Impossible....

"**'lived' is past tense, as is 'was'. 'worrying' is present continous(now). The context of the story is in the past not in the present."

[ilovebdt]

[littlelisa]