meaning of "Standing out"

[Rebeccah]

Test No. express/elem-1 "Adding Up", question 2

All the sudents got high marks in the test but Mary stood out.

(a) got a lot of marks
(b) got higher marks than someone
(c) got very good marks
(d) got the most marks of all

Test No. express/elem-1 "Adding Up", answer 2

All the sudents got high marks in the test but Mary got the most marks of all.

Correct answer: (d) got the most marks of all

Your answer was: incorrect
All the sudents got high marks in the test but Mary got very good marks.
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"She stood out" doesn't mean she got the *most* marks, it means she got the *highest* marks, which wasn't a choice on this test.

Rebeccah

[Torsten]

Hi Rebeccah,

If somebody stands out from others she or he is much better or much more important than the others. In the sentence you are referring to Mary clearly stands out because she got more marks than all the others so she is better than all the others - she got the most marks of all. Mary achieved outstanding results.
Hope this helps to clear up your confusion.

Regards
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Void]

What is the difference between (got higher marks than someone) and (got the most marks of all)? It seems that "most" is associated more ofthen with quantity ("Most doctors oppose assisted suicide", "how to get the most money from the sale", "I love him most of all" - measuring in watts [or whatever]), and almost never with quality.

Mary was in the same class as others, so she couldn't get more marks than others - seemingly, they all wrote the same tests. But she could get _higher marks than someone_ on average.

[Alan]

Hi,

The point surely is that of all the others taking the test Mary got the most marks in the sense that her total tally of marks was the greatest (your point about quantity), ergo she got the most marks of all.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story The way you write it

[lost_soul]

Hi
I beg to inform you that you have misspelled the word "student".
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Alex

How much upchuck would a woodchuck upchuck if a woodchuck could upchuck ?

(a guy from Russia)

[Alan]

Hi,

Well spotted and thank you.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Here comes 2004...