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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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 Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:29 am Post subject: Look at this bizarre TOEFL question |
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The weather concerns everybody and has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities.
The instructions are to change just one word. I came up with one possibility, but I'd like to see what you all can think of.
Q.
Edit: fixed typo
Last edited by Qinella on Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:22 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:50 am Post subject: |
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Well, the first thing I saw was an issue with ambiguity. Are we allowed to add a word?
The weather concerns everybody and IT has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities.
Then the second half of the sentence is still weird. |
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out of context
Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:13 am Post subject: |
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It seems to me like you can replace "somewhat" with certain adjectives of the form "un+Root+able", although the results may be somewhat counterintuitive in terms of meaning.
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly unavoidable/inescapable effects on all human activities. (most natural-sounding to me)
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly unforeseeable effects...
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly undeniable effects...
Also, "unparalleled" seems like it would work. |
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denverdeath
Joined: 21 May 2005
Location: Boo-sahn
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:18 am Post subject: |
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| Take out nearly AND somewhat and you have an okay sentence. Taking out only one word will not do the trick. Whoever gave you this sentence either copied it down incorrectly or got it from a terribly edited text(either situation could be easy to believe). Or, I may be wrong. I'd like to hear your possibility though. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:29 am Post subject: |
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| "Somewhat" is an adverb, clearly wrong, & has to go. What replaces it is anybody's guess. |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| denverdeath wrote: |
| Take out nearly AND somewhat and you have an okay sentence. Taking out only one word will not do the trick. Whoever gave you this sentence either copied it down incorrectly or got it from a terribly edited text(either situation could be easy to believe). Or, I may be wrong. I'd like to hear your possibility though. |
Well, the only thing I could think of was to replace "somewhat" with "controlling".
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly controlling effects on all human activities.
I think that's "somewhat" of a true statement, but still sounds strange. Perhaps a synonym for "controlling" would be better, but I couldn't think of one.
Out of context's answers were better, though. Much, better, as far as the way they sound.
I really feel sorry for the students taking these tests. Over the past year, I've taught TOEIC and PELT, and am starting to familiarize myself with TOEFL, and I've seen so many strange, unanswerable questions that it blows my mind. I get stressed out reading some of them, and I'm not even under pressure!
For example, one question I saw on a practice PELT test contained four pictures of various monuments from around the world, and four choices as to the name of the monument. I was like, what does this have to do at all with English proficiency?
Q. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
For example, one question I saw on a practice PELT test contained four pictures of various monuments from around the world, and four choices as to the name of the monument. I was like, what does this have to do at all with English proficiency?
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Not knowing the specifics, I'd surmise it has to do with broader cultural proficiency. If a student is going to go on to higher education in the west, isnt some knowledge of common cultural touchstones necessary? |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:02 am Post subject: |
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The weather concerns everybody and has some effects on nearly all human activities.
It looks like it has two mistakes to me. I suspect the test makers made a mistake. |
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Porter_Goss
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Location: The Wrong Side of Right
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:34 am Post subject: |
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nearly somewhat?
*EDIT* Finishing my thought;
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities...
The weather concerns everybody and somewhat effects nearly all human activities.
-has -on
?
I dunno. What do you think? |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| schwa wrote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
For example, one question I saw on a practice PELT test contained four pictures of various monuments from around the world, and four choices as to the name of the monument. I was like, what does this have to do at all with English proficiency?
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Not knowing the specifics, I'd surmise it has to do with broader cultural proficiency. If a student is going to go on to higher education in the west, isnt some knowledge of common cultural touchstones necessary? |
You'd think so, but the options were the Eifel Tower, Statue of Liberty, a famous Korean palace, and then some obscure Chinese temple. The answer was the obscure temple.  |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:11 am Post subject: |
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| Porter_Goss wrote: |
nearly somewhat?
*EDIT* Finishing my thought;
The weather concerns everybody and has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities...
The weather concerns everybody and somewhat effects nearly all human activities.
-has -on
?
I dunno. What do you think? |
I'm not sure what you mean by -has -on, but effects is a noun. "somewhat effects nearly all human activities" wouldn't work. |
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Porter_Goss
Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Location: The Wrong Side of Right
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:34 am Post subject: |
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| 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. I agree that "somewhat effects nearly all human activities" is incorrect, that's why I said
| Porter_Goss wrote: |
?
I dunno. |
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yesmindnomind
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Location: North America
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:05 am Post subject: Re: Look at this bizarre TOEFL question |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| The weather concerns everybody and has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities. |
hmmm...
nearly universal effects on all human activities...? |
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flotsam
Joined: 28 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:07 pm Post subject: Re: Look at this bizarre TOEFL question |
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| yesmindnomind wrote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
| The weather concerns everybody and has nearly somewhat effects on all human activities. |
hmmm...
nearly universal effects on all human activities...? |
This is what I came up with on first looking at it. Out of context's answers are all quite good though--but the hell if a second language learner is going to come up with those while taking a timed exam. |
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I-am-me
Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Location: Hermit Kingdom
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| Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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| If the test was written by a korean...you have your answer. I have seen too many mistakes in english books here. |
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