read over vs. read through

[Hothu]

Hello everybody,
Please help me choose the correct answer for the following sentence from 4 options in/out/over/through
Before answering the puzzles, you should read ........... the questions carefully.

I'm supposing that there is no option suitable for this sentence.

[Lost_Soul]

In my opinion it should read "Before answering the puzzles, you should read through the questions carefully".
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Alex

How much upchuck would a woodchuck upchuck if a woodchuck could upchuck ?

(a guy from Russia)

[Yankee]

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Yes, 'through' would be a good choice.

Some people might also use 'over'.

read over/through
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Hothu]

Thank you, Yankee and lost-soul.
I don't think that "read sth through/over" could go with "carefully".
In addition, "read through" is similar to "read over".
Yankee, thank you for showing me the link to BrED. However, I don't find any usefull for me there. I want a clear explanation for the best answer. Thanks anyway.

[Yankee]

Hi Hothu

The Cambridge Dictionary definition tells you that 'read through' means to 'read from beginning to end' and that is the primary function of the word 'through'. In addition, the Cambridge Dictionary adds the information 'especially to find mistakes'. If it is possible to read something through in order to find mistakes, then the type of reading involved in 'read through' is not a completely careless sort of reading. Instead it would be a fairly thorough sort of reading -- from beginning to end, with some attention to detail. Thus, it is not contradictory to add the word 'carefully' in the sentence.

In a nutshell, that dictionary definition supports the use of 'read through' in your sentence quite nicely. I'm really not sure how much clearer the explanation can possibly be.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Hothu]

Thank you very much, Yankee.
Your explanation is very clear.
But, How about "read over"?

[Stew.t.]

Hi

The answer Amy gave is quite clear.

My take on it would be "read over" would not be necessarily like "read through". I would consider read over as skim reading just for surface detail and read through as deeper.

Imagine it like skimming a stone across a lake as read over, and read through to throw a stone into the lake, maybe.
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Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[Yankee]

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Yes, I'd tend to agree with that. 'Read over' seems a little less careful than 'read through'. However, 'read over' strikes me as more thorough than the type of reading involved in 'skimming'. I like the picture of the stone and the water, though. When the stone moves through the water, the entire surface of the stone has contact with the water, whereas when a stone skims across the water, perhaps only part (or one side) of the stone has contact with the water.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Stew.t.]

Hi Amy

I guess in certain contexts, maybe if you were doing it for copy editing purposes.

"Can you read over this for any mistakes?"

But just "I read over you report" if I said it would be only for an overview as such.

Prehaps we have to contextualize examples to get the subtlety.
_________________
Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[Yankee]

Hi Stew

I was mainly reacting to the word 'skim' since that word can also be used as another type of reading.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi,

'Read over' to me has a different sense suggesting reading again as in one person reading the numbers over on a credit card to another to make sure that the numbers tally say with what's on the computer screen. If you want someone to read what you have written for accuracy, style or whatever, I think 'check' is a better bet because you can only check something written by actually reading it. Or what about simply 'proofread'?

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/take

[Stew.t.]

Hi Alan

Don´t you think read over and check could be used?

"Could you read this over for mistakes for me?" is quite acceptable I think-

As for proof read it is BrE for the American usage copy edit.
_________________
Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[Yankee]

[Stew.t.]

Hi

I think I would use read back in the same context Alan, as Amy points out.

Most of the Business English material I have come across use this phrase in telephoning sections.
_________________
Please meet Stewart Tunncilff

[Yankee]

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For repetition, I can also imagine something like this:
"I read it over and over, but I never did manage to figure out what he meant."
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English