Almost all exercises vs. almost all the exercises

[Torsten]

Hi, is the following another case of being more or less specific:

You have finished almost all the exercises in this lesson.
You have finished almost all exercises in this lesson.

What is the difference?

Thanks in advance,
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

In a word, yes. The point of using 'the' is to refer to something specifically, to refer as it were to its 'definiteness' . I have taken this last word from a Paper written by David J Young published by University of Wales, Cardiff called Articles and Things or Why my students leave out definite article.. All exercises refers to the totality of the exercises whereas all the exercises refers both to the totality and also to the fact that they (exercises) are in this lesson.

A
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English as a Second Language
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