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Slava
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 #198 (permalink) Thu Feb 14, 2008 5:15 am Errors in the tests |
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I know the composer's intent, but I don't think there's enough context to warrant the validity of the distractor in THIS QUESTION.
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Mister Micawber
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Mister Micawber
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Slava
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Mister Micawber
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Slava
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Mister Micawber
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| #204 (permalink) Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:12 am Errors in the tests |
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Many thanks, Charles.
PS Correct answer now:
Hello, my name is Bob! I haven't anything to do tonight, so if you're not busy, would you like to watch a movie or something with me?
Am I right?
Slava |
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Slava
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| #205 (permalink) Sat Feb 16, 2008 15:51 pm Errors in the tests |
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Yes, I think that will work, Slava. I don't think we can absolutely solve the a/the dual possibilities in this question, but at least now 'the' is a much less likely choice.
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| #207 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 13:12 pm Errors in the tests |
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Hi,
I agree that the past simple would work as well but I can't see any objection to the past perfect either. I'm not sitting on the fence here because it depends how you interpret the sentence. You could regard the 'reaching' and the 'feeling' as happening together at the same time and in that case you would use past simple. On the other hand you could interpret it to mean that first you reached the bottom of the mountain and then you felt tired in the sense that you realised that you felt tired. That seems plausible because often if you are engaged in physical work you are not aware that you are tired and it's only when you stop that you realise you are. I'll come off the fence now and suggest the sentence is left as it is.
Alan
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| #208 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 14:01 pm Errors in the tests |
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I agree that a person could:
a-- "regard the 'reaching' and the 'feeling' as happening together at the same time (simple past)"
or
b-- "interpret it to mean that first you reached the bottom of the mountain and then you felt tired".
However, in the second case the 'reaching' precedes the 'tiredness', so the 'reaching' would be in the past perfect,not the 'tired feeling':
By the time I reached the bottom of the mountain, I had felt extremely tired.
Not a good choice.
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| #209 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 14:20 pm Errors in the tests |
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Isn't that precisely what I've just written: 'reach' past perfect', 'feel' past simple as in the correct answer.
Alan
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| #210 (permalink) Wed Feb 20, 2008 20:13 pm Errors in the tests |
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I'm not on the fence with this one either. I agree with MM that the way the past perfect is used in the test sentence is odd.
The word 'by' and the phrase 'by the time' are both used to refer to something that happened before or not later than something else. So, "by the time I reached the bottom" can only mean "not later than the time at which I reached the bottom". Attempting to use 'by the time' mean the same thing as 'after' is odd, and certainly wouldn't be typical in my book.
A typical "by the time" sentence would use the past perfect this way:
By the time I called the fire department, the fire had spread to the house next door.
In other words, the fire spread before I called the fire department.
I think everyone will agree that it would be strange to say this:
X By the time I had called the fire department, the fire spread to the house next door. X
I'd say the past perfect does not work well with "feel tired" because this refers to an on-going state rather than a completed action. However, the past perfect would work with "begin to feel tired", for example:
By the time I reached the bottom of the mountain, I had begun to feel tired.
If you want to indicate that a feeling of extreme tiredness arrived only after you reached the bottom of the mountain, then I would suggest actually using the word 'after' rather than trying to use a phrase that typically means 'before':
After I had reached the bottom of the mountain, I felt extremely tired.
That's how I see things.
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