in the search of v.s. in the search for

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, everyone !

I was doing a grammar exercise and stumbled on a few questions that I think might have 2 answers, though, of course, I'm not sure. So, could you help me and tell if you consider the blue answers appropriate or not (the red answers are the author's ones).

[Yankee]

Hi LS

The word 'so' in your first sentence precedes a conclusion drawn from information in the first part of the sentence. The most likely choice is 'take to it'. In my opinion, 'take it up' is not a possible option at all since any time you take something up, there is always a first time that you do it.

Even so, I don't really like 'take to it' very much either -- at least not as the sentence is worded. It would seem more logical if the wording were something like "...and I didn't think I'd take to it" or "... so I wasn't sure I'd take to it".

Regarding your second sentence, standard collocations are:
- in search of
- in the search for
.

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, Amy

Thank you very much !
(while doing the test I felt that I'd heard somewhere in the search of but I know now that it was actually in search of )

[Alan]

Hi lost_soul,

That question in the test seems quite ambiguous to me since you could use either, I believe. The trouble is you don't know whether the experience of skiing was pleasurable or not. I suppose you have to assume that it wasn't because of the negative: so I didn't think ..You therefore have two lines of thought:as a result of my bad experience I didn't think I'd take to it (get used to liking it) or as a result of my bad experience I didn't think I would take it up (follow it as a regular sport).

Not a very satisfactory answer, I'm afraid. If I had to choose, I would go for 'take it up'.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Here comes 2004...

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, Alan

Thank you very much for elaborating on my question, I hear what you're saying !
I wanted to use take it up as follow it as a regular sport

PS: I see that your point on using take up is different from Amy's (As I understand Amy's point was that if you take something up, you havent done it before)
So, let us beg to differ !

[Yankee]

Hi LS

Actually, I'd say that the vote is basically unanimous. Alan is apparently just as uncomfortable as I am with that sentence.
.