Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seoulman1]

My girl studies one English subject at her university and presented me with some tricky questions. I asked her if her professor was a native English speaker and as I predicted hes not. She has received impeccable scores apart from this one subject.

Anyway the following questions are what I myself are little confused about. The correct answers are rediculously and hard to distinguish. The first to get confused and pissed off as I am gets some yummy candy.

1.

She became _____ with the idea that she was being watched

a) involved
b) obsessed
d) concerned

2.

He ______ out the rumor to his friends:

a) spread
b) blurted
c) yelled

3.

Tony drove up in his _____ sports car

a) svelte
b) impressive
c) modified

4.

In the battle of the bulge there's often no time for small talk.

The word in question is 'bulge' and asks what is the meaning of the word (as it is used in the sentence) from these three:

a) rudeness
b) swelling
c) extremely filthy

5.

some people, however, seeing the need for changes, agitate for cures which, on examination, appear to be no better than the ailment

The word in question is agitate with possible meanings:

a) protest to get something
b) think clearly or calmly
c) perform successfully

[butlerian]

The first 3 aren't bad, but not perfect. The last two are a bit fucked up.

[the_beaver]

[faster]

[kotakji]

Well 4 and 5 are really strangely worded but at least theirs only one possible answer. The first three you can see as a native speaker which answer the question maker was looking for, but the last answer in each of them wouldnt be incorrect would they?

[Yesterday]

a little stupid because of your thread title -

Post subject: Is this Konglish or am I stupid?

None of the above are Konglish - the first 3 are OK - the last 2 - JUST BAD English....... (but not Konglish)......[/b]

[seoulman1]

Most of the questions could have been answered with two of the answers.

I also chose 'blurted' for question 2 and apparenty thats incorrect. Its spead.

This test would just confuse me if I was studying English. I would hate to be confronted with this level of ambiguitiy.

[seoulman1]

[seoulman1]

'Swelling' is really the only word that fits grammatically but it's a silly
statement. There wouldn't be time for small talk if you were battling
something 'extremely filthy'. The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest of
the battles that U.S. forces experienced in World War II so maybe there's a
connection with 'extremely filthy'.

No 1 below would be 'blurted' from a grammatical point of view - you blurt
something out. However 'spread' is more associated with rumours - but you
wouldn't say 'spread out'.

No 2 would most likely be 'impressive'. 'Svelte' tends to be associated with
people. The car could also be modified.

No 3 could be either �'obsessed' or 'concerned' but 'obsessed' is more
usually associated with the psychological aspects of 'being watched'.

[kotakji]

Yeah my brother in law brought me one of his English exams from college (after the fact) to ask me if I could complete it. I must say that it was a case of obscurantism at its finest. (For the record his professor was Korean as well). Looked something akin to the one above except aimed at an even more 'advanced' student.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Privateer]

They're neither Konglish nor bad English, but in some of them more than one answer is possible, which makes it a badly designed test. It also appears that the idiot teacher is awarding points for incorrect answers like 'spread out the rumor', which makes the whole test a joke.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[peppermint]

The questions are pretty similar to the ones I had to read for a TOEIC study tape once. I figured "spread out" would be the answer they were looking for. Ever so close to correct use of idioms is a dead giveaway for these sorts of things.

As for the OP, either slow down when writing or check your own writing before commenting on someone elses

[Pyongshin Sangja]