Difference between sit and stand

[Germana]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #84 "Simple Present (1)", question 8

"In London, which ......... on the river Thames, people make a lot of noise all the time."

(a) stands
(b) holds
(c) begins
(d) sits

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #84 "Simple Present (1)", answer 8

"In London, which stands on the river Thames, people make a lot of noise all the time."

Correct answer: (a) stands
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What is the difference between sits and stands,is "sits"used in a poetic form and cannot be used as specific geographical term?Thank you very much.

Germana

[Pamela]

Hi, Germana! In such situations the verb to stand is always used , not to sit. It's fixed.

[Hoanghuong]

Hi everybody
there are some enigmatic words: stand around, stand out, stand for, stand up. ...
Tell me the use of that word.??
Thank you!

[Yankee]

Hi Hoamghuong

Those are phrasal verbs. You can generally find them in any good dictionary.
Look here (scroll down to the verb phrases):
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=stand&r=66
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Anejame]

i think the sentence above begining with preposition "in" is not correct. first of all the pro "which" here is a replacement of London, next "in London" is an adverb phrase. so the correct one should be removed "in" that is enough.

[Beeesneees]

The test question is correct as it stands, Anejame.

It joins these two pieces of information together:

In London -- people make a lot of noise all the time.
London sits on the River Thames.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Our Tort System]

[Beeesneees]

That was very observant, Tort. What it means is that I glanced up the page when I was writing my response, and saw the end of the question, but not the beginning (because I couldn't see the top part of the page when I typed my reply owing to the length of the thread) so I just made the assumption.

I agree that 'stands' is the best of the possible choices, but cities/ building, etc. are frequently described as 'sitting at/on' a geographical feature and wouldn't think twice about accepting 'sits' as a correct alternative (obviously - because I didn't!)

It's not my call to make, but if it were, I would change that option because to me the question has two possible correct answers.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Our Tort System]

[Anejame]

In London -- people make a lot of noise all the time.
London sits on the River Thames.
in this sentence we must use "where" not "which"

[Beeesneees]

Hello Anejame,

'Which' is correct in the test question.
The location of the city provides extra information.
In London / , which is a city that sits/stands on the River Thames, / people make a lot of noise all the time.
In London people make a lot of noise all the time.

If you use 'where' then you need more information in your sentence, because the extra information would be about the noise level, not about the location of the city:
In London /, where people make a lot of noise all the time, / it is hard to find somewhere to sit alone.
In London it is hard to find somewhere to sit alone.
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Cheers m' dears!