Carried away?

[Sergey]

Test No. incompl/inter-13 "At the Theatre", question 7

The ......... were so carried away with the acting that at the end of the play they all stood up and applauded.

(a) spectators
(b) watchers
(c) listeners
(d) audience

Test No. incompl/inter-13 "At the Theatre", answer 7

The audience were so carried away with the acting that at the end of the play they all stood up and applauded.

Correct answer: (d) audience

Your answer was: n/a
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What does it mean carried away?
thanks

[Alan]

This means they were very emotional in their enthusiasm.
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[Guest]

[Alan]

Hi,

Collective nouns like audience can take a singular or plural verb form. I wrote The audience were ... to give the idea that they were in fact people/human beings and not just an abstract entitiy.

Alan
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[Sevide]

Hi,
what is the difference between audience and spectators?
can you clarify me?
thanks

[Alan]

Hi Sevide,

Audience describes people primarily listening as in a concert hall/debating hall. Spectators describes people primarily watching as at a football match.

Alan
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[kralz@amu.cz]

Are you absolutely sure about the "spectators" - "audience" explanation? I have read many times about "spectators" when describing people in the cinema or at the theatre as well as about "audience". I think "theatrical" performance is as much about listening as about viewing, looking, watching. It is a synthetic kind of performing art. Of course, I would never use "audience" when talking about sports, competitions, races or matches.

[toeic]

Alan's explanation makes perfect sense. As you might know the word audience is of Latin origin and it originally described a group of people who listened to a concert of an interview. You certainly know words like audio or audible which all have to do with the sense of hearing.
Spectator has Latin roots too and is more related to people that use their eyes. You might have heard of the words spectacles or spectacular which are connected to the sense of seeing.
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