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 #32 (permalink) Fri Aug 17, 2007 13:21 pm errors in the tests |
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Hi,
I left out the question mark to indicate that it is a request/invitation/instruction assuming the driver will move the car and it is not open for negotiation.
Alan
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| #33 (permalink) Fri Aug 17, 2007 13:33 pm errors in the tests |
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Very creative, Alan, but I don't think you have that option-- it is still a question by structure if not by pragmatics.
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| #34 (permalink) Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:05 pm errors in the tests |
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It's not a matter of being creative, Charles but merely an indication that this isn't a question and therefore doesn't require a question mark. If you say to someone: Will you close the door. You are not expecting a reply but compliance.
Alan
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| #35 (permalink) Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:25 pm errors in the tests |
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Well. how about an exclamation point then-- something to make it look less odd from the western side of the Atlantic?
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| #36 (permalink) Fri Aug 17, 2007 14:51 pm errors in the tests |
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Though some may find this hard to believe, I'd agree with Alan on this one.
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Yankee
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| #37 (permalink) Sat Aug 18, 2007 0:09 am errors in the tests |
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| Will you close the door. |
Does this look odd to no one but me?
OK-- you win a lose, you few a few.
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| #39 (permalink) Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:12 pm errors in the tests |
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| Mister Micawber wrote: |
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| Will you close the door. |
Does this look odd to no one but me? |
Hi MM
Yes, that one does look odd to me. 
For that one, I'd definitely use a question mark -- or possibly an exclamation point if I wanted to indicate a loud, impatient voice.
As I see it, in a longer, more complicated sentence which serves as a polite demand (especially one that is an announcement made over a PA system as the test sentence apparently was), the period/full stop is appropriate even though the word order is interrogative. The sentence isn't really a question -- the interrogative word order serves only to make the demand politer.
To be honest, though, using a question mark in the test sentence wouldn't have seemed completely wrong to me either. I just think the period is more appropriate in this particular case.
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| #41 (permalink) Sun Aug 19, 2007 23:58 pm errors in the tests |
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My effort:
You should read not only novels but also newspapers, so that you can see examples of ......... language.
(a) idiomatic
(b) automatic
(c) axiomatic
(d) symptomatic
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| #42 (permalink) Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:51 am errors in the tests |
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Hi Charles,
Thanks for your suggestion, we'll make that change. As for 'examples', we corrected this a long time ago in test itself. The original version stays on the forum though.
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| #43 (permalink) Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:54 am errors in the tests |
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| The original version stays on the forum though. |
Aargh! What does that mean, exactly? And how universal is it?-- are we liable to be continually seeing long-corrected typos?
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| #44 (permalink) Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:57 am errors in the tests |
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Users take the test on the site, not on the forum so in order to see whether or not a typo has been corrected simply click on the appropriate link.
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| #45 (permalink) Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:50 am errors in the tests |
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| Mister Micawber wrote: |
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My effort:
You should read not only novels but also newspapers, so that you can see examples of ......... language.
(a) idiomatic
(b) automatic
(c) axiomatic
(d) symptomatic
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Hi Charles
I had the same thought about changing 'don't have to' to 'should' and like your suggested change for option (d).
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