Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[puzzle]

Dear teachers,
Can you help me with the following exercise?
---I refused her offer for me to be her driver.
---- Oh, she is such a sucessful being in business whose ____ you should take of.
A. avantage B. use C. position D. notice
At first sight we will choose "A" but how to analyse the sentence?
we have the set phrase" take advantage of" ,I think the subject in the clause is "you",the predicate is "should take" and the object is "whose advantage', but can we say " take sb's advantage"? And what's the use of "of" here? Should it be omitted?

Thank you!

[Eric Thompson]

Dear puzzle: From the practice of English that I've heard for many years, the 'of' must follow 'take advantage'. You can't split it up. 'Take advantage of' is phrase, a package. The nouns that commonly follow the phrase are: 'situation', 'position', and 'opportunity'. The way I would rewrite your reply sentence is as follows: Oh, she is such a successful person (not being) in business, whose position you should take advantage of...No, we cannot 'take someone's advantage'. We can 'take advantage of someone's _____'. Ok? -- Eric