Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[puzzle]

Dear teachers,
In a proof-reading exercises ,there is a sentence like this:
"We kept on telling people not to destroy the beauty of nature so that we can have a cleaner world."
The answer says this sentence is correct, but I remembered having done a similar question,and the answer is to change cleaner to clean.
So how to solve this kind of problem? (The previous state is dirty and now it is clean,if the previou state is clean, it should be cleaner. So in my opinion it should be changed into clean here.Do you think so?)
Thank you very much!

[Eric Thompson]

Dear puzzle, The question is: when does something change from being dirty to being clean? It's hard to say. So, when you do some cleaning, especially in the 'environment' outside our homes, you can't be sure if it is mostly dirty or mostly clean. To avoid making such critical judgments, you can safely say that it is cleaner than it was before your cleaning was done. Someone can't argue against that. Ok? -- Eric

[puzzle]

Dear Eric,
Thank you for your explanation, I've got it. But how about the following situation?
Last term, we got along peacefully and happily. But I find they are not willing to be with me now. They don't talk with me, and they've become cold towards me.
and the answer is to change "cold" to "colder". Why?
Thank you very much!

[Lorikeet]

The answer to me, Puzzle, is that the questions are poorly done. I can accept either answer, depending on the feeling of the speaker. In fact, your lastest example sounds better with "cold" than "colder" since they weren't cold before.