Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

The following is a script that I dictated listening to a radio program. I couldn�t catch the blank part below. To me it sounded like #1(to), while a friend of mine insists it was #2 (of).

From the context, which do you guess is the most appropriate for the blank, #1 or #2 or some other word?
1. to
2. of

The government put higher and higher taxes on cigarettes. Some people say that's not a good thing depending on what the taxes are used for. So supposedly in some states the taxes are earmarked for preschool education, for example. So on the one hand the government likes to have the tax money coming in to set up schools for kids, but on the other hand the government is trying to discourage people from smoking, because it's bad or you. So they are kind of pushing both sides ( ) the issue in that case. So, how much you can smoke and where you can smoke and what are smokers' rights and nonsmokers' rights is ... a kind of a tough question. I imagine eventually it will be settled in the courts.

Fw

[Mister Micawber]

.
Answered HERE.
.
_________________
"I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences." � Gertrude Stein
...............
Canadian-American who teaches English for a living at Mr Micawber's

[hitori2k6]

FW,

Hi, going by the paragraph you provided, I'll tell you "of" is
the correct answer for that context.

See the following sentence example you provided with my
answer included in parantheses.

"So they are kind of pushing both sides (of) the issue in that case"

I didn't see any other blanks in the paragraph you provided, so
I'm assuming that was the blank you were asking about.

I hope that helps.

Hitori2k6