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Look at this bizarre TOEFL question
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Qinella



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib

PostPosted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Porter_Goss wrote:
Qinella wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean by -has -on, but effects is a noun. "somewhat effects nearly all human activities" wouldn't work.


I was playing with the sentence in my head...
I removed "has" and "on" from the original, just to mess with it.


Ooohhh, those were minus signs. Laughing
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justagirl



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Cheonan/Portland

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

not to mention it should be that the weather affects nearly all humans.
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I-am-me wrote:
If the test was written by a korean...you have your answer. I have seen too many mistakes in english books here. Shocked

This is exactly what I was thinking when I glanced at the opening post of this thread and is why decided I wasn't going to be "playing along".

I'm not even in the ESL profession, and still I've been shown these blasted questions by all sorts of Koreans, some were friends, some were complete strangers who have accosted me on the subway, a coffee shop, the office, wherever. I've seen errors -- usually typos or missing words -- in sections of the text (like the questions & explanations) THAT AREN'T SUPPOSED to contain errors. Typically, the Korean "English-botherer" will want me to, in effect, take the test: read one of the questions and answer it for them. Okay, simple enough. Oh, it's a multiple-choice question...

Me: I'll say "D".

English-botherer Who Accosted Me At A Coffee Shop: No, the answer is "C".

Me: Really? "C" looks obviously wrong. How can it be "C"?

English-botherer: I don't know, but I have all the answers scribbled down on this scrap of paper here... see? And the answer for this question has to be "C". Now please explain to me why "C" is correct.

Me: Rolling Eyes (*reading question & answers again* Hey, some of those questions are rather intricate and take time to digest if you're not used to taking practise test after practise test) Look, "C" does not seem correct to me. I have no idea how "C" could be correct, so how can I explain to you why it is correct?

English-botherer: (*gets all stressed, re-reads question for probably the 300th time*) But please.... Try to imagine that "C" is the correct answer and just try to explain it any way you can. Please...! Crying or Very sad

Me: How about you try to imagine that I'm not a foreigner? So you just go back to your table with your little friends, and you let me finish my cafe mocha in peace? (No, I didn't really say that, but I tried to express the sentiment with every fibre of my being.)

If I see a Korean student walking towards me carrying a sheaf of A4 paper with photocopied questions on it, unless I've got half an hour to burn, I'll either flee or start speaking atrocious Klingon into my cellphone. It's either going to be 55 questions about my favourite Korean food, tourist destination, holiday, tree, product, company, etc. -- OR it's going to be more of those infernal, poorly produced TOEFL practise questions that some poor stressed-out haksaeng is peeing his pants over because answer "C" doesn't make any sense.
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