Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

Motor exam. Examination of the motor system, which consists of nerves that activate the voluntary muscles that produce movement. Tests of muscle strength and tone make up this part of the assessment.
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What do you mean by "activate" in the sentence?
(1) elongate
(2) contract
(3) elongate and contract

Which one is correct?

http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/neurological-examination.html

Thnak you in advance.

[EnglishRaven]

Hi,

This looks like a vocab collocation knowledge question to me...

I would say the answer is 2) contract

That's because (as far as I know) you don't say "elongate muscles" - to achieve the desired meaning you would need something like "stretch muscles" or "flex muscles". But you can certainly "contract muscles" through movement.

It depends on who made the test. In some countries, if the test is made by non-native speakers who aren't fully proficient with the subtleties of English, they may use the world 'elongate' here.

'Elongate' could be considered a synonym of 'stretch' and other words like 'lengthen', but 'stretch' is the only appropriate collocation with 'muscles' I can come up with off the top of my head. It's not in the answer options, so I would limit it to the one word that can collocate with muscles - that being 'contract'.

Hope that helps.

Best,

Jason
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[learner12]

Dear EnglishRaven:

Thank you so much for your quick replies.

Yes, you are right. Thank you for your great pointers for studying English--to concentrate "collocation."

Take care and have a nice day!!

[CP]

The nerves innervate the muscles, making the muscle fibers contract (when the signal travels down the nerve to the muscke) or relax (when the signal ceases). When the fibers of the muscle are all relaxed, the muscle is at its longest, not tensed at all. So perhaps the test-maker tried to express this by putting in both contract and elongate. Anyway, it is a bad test question and should be made to stand in the corner for the rest of the hour.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[EnglishRaven]

[learner12]

Dear CP & EnglishRaven:

Thank you two so much for answering and discussing my questions.

Take care and have a nice day!!