Cost of living

[alejo]

Test No. incompl/inter-84 "Simple Present (1)", question 3

Andrew worried about the weather, the state of the pound, his health, the cost of ......... and once he even worried because he thought he wasn't worrying enough.

(a) life
(b) existence
(c) living
(d) existing

Test No. incompl/inter-84 "Simple Present (1)", answer 3

Andrew worried about the weather, the state of the pound, his health, the cost of living and once he even worried because he thought he wasn't worrying enough.

Correct answer: (c) living

Your answer was: incorrect
Andrew worried about the weather, the state of the pound, his health, the cost of life and once he even worried because he thought he wasn't worrying enough.
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why living and not life?

alejo

[Torsten]

The cost of living is a set phrase describing The average cost of the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[jon]

Hi all,

My doubt here is

"worried about the weather" or "weathrr" (without THE)

(because weather is uncountable)

Please help, thanks in advance

[Alan]

Hi,

The reason I wrote 'the' weather is because it refers to the sort of weather Andrew would experience in his own country/home town and not 'weather' as an abstract thing all over the world.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[lost_soul]

[Yankee]

.
Right you are, LS.

It is the indefinite article 'a' that presents a problem with uncountable nouns, so you should not say "He worried about a weather".

However, the definite article 'the' can be used to refer to a specific sort of uncountable thing (as Alan mentioned).
.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English