Difference between 'search' and 'seek'

[Bruno]

Test No. errors/inter-3 "Sally and her Letter", question 5

A dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant is being searched by the police.

(a) criminal
(b) seen
(c) is
(d) searched

Test No. errors/inter-3 "Sally and her Letter", answer 5

A dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant is being sought by the police.

Correct entry: sought
The error was: (d) searched

You have found the error but your entry is incorrect.
A dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant is being wanted by the police.
_________________________

can't I put wanted?

thanks
Bruno

[Narayanan Krishnaswamy]

The answers;
1.A dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant is being searched by the police.

2. A dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant is being wanted by the police.
The whole sentence should be re-written.
The framing of the question itself is wrong.
Why should it be in the present continuous passive?

Let us look at these examples:
He is searched by the police. ( physical search?)
He is being searched by the police.( is it a continuous process?)
He is sought by the police. (Has he become invisible?
He is being sought by the police. (Is it a seeking that is going on?)( The police is seeking him.)
I want a book.(the book)
I am wanting a book.*
A book is wanted by me.?
A book is being wanted by me.*
• Sentences with this mark are incorrect.
• ? Is it advisable to use the passive? I won’t.
“A dangerous criminal, who was seen…”
• Which one should we use-the definite or the indefinite article?
The correct forms may be:
1.The police are (is) searching for the dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant.
(better ‘are’)

2.The police want the dangerous criminal who was last seen having a drink in a small restaurant.

Want: usually material objects; want advice; wanted man- the police are in search of him, to arrest him

sought: to seek : try to find something, usually not a material object.

Wanted criminal: a criminal at large

Normally these are written in active to make them intelligible.

Active and passive forms are not just used for grammar exercise. Either is chosen for emphasis and clarity of expression.

[Mosteque]

aren't you familiar with "seek and destroy" phrase??
I don't think it means "looking for sth" that "has become invisible"
_________________
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[Guest]

When the police want some person, they go after him, search for him and arrest him.
They don't seek for him.
narayanan.

[Alan]

Hi Bruno,

I'm afraid that Narayanan has made what is a perfectly straightforward question into a total confusion and in addition has given some wrong information. Perhaps as the author of this and the other 306 tests on the site, I should explain. Your answer wanted is I am afraid not acceptable here because we need a past participle after is being and the verb want is not usually used in the continuous form. You could obviously say wanted by the police but then it wouldn't fit with the rest of the verb. The answer you need is sought, which is the past participle of the verb seek and is often used to mean look for in the active voice with abstract nouns like truth or information. In the passive continuous form (is being sought) it is very often used in official reports or news bulletins when referring to the police when they ARE (always PLURAL) looking for a suspect or potential criminal. Finally we come to the verb search, which very often means look for and is also used with the preposition for as in: I've misplaced my papers and I've been searching for them all over the house. It can also be used with a direct object again with reference to the police as in: The police searched everyone to make sure they were not carrying any guns - in other words they physically felt each part of their clothing to see if there were any guns. Obviously searched is wrong here because in my sentence I have said 'was last seen ..' and therefore if he is not there, he cannot be searched!

I am sorry you were given incorrect information. Clearly anybody can write comments on all our forums but when this information is incorrect, I have to comment.
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Womens' Day

[Guest]

the problem is that when I write 'sought' I get the infromation that it is an error... Is everything OK with this question?

[lost_soul]

Hi, Alan
As you have said, we cannot use "wanted" here, though this choice appears among the correct answers...
_________________
Alex

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
I'm comin' home to you

[Torsten]

Hi lost_soul,

Please take a look at answer again and read it carefully:
You have found the error but your entry is incorrect.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[bootedcat]

"<Police> seek <Criminal>" is ok.

"<Police> search <An Area> for <Criminal>" is also ok.

But when you put "criminal" in the place of "An Area", it would mean the police has already taken hold of the criminal and is examining his body for something, e.g. a weapon, a driver license that identifies him, etc.

[bootedcat]

<n. Search Executor> search [<n. Area Examined>] [for <n. Target of Pursuit>]

In fact this is called a semantic frame of "v. search" in computational linguistics. "Search Executor", "Area Examined", "Target of Pursuit" are the three "semantic roles" of the verb "search". Existence of the semantic roles of a particular verb are universal to all natural languages, but they may appear as different syntactic components ("syntactic realizations"). In English, "Search Executor" is realized as the subject; "Area Examined" is realized as an optional object; "Target of Pursuit" is realized as a "for" prepositional phrase (PP).

[lost_soul]

[Yankee]

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten and Slava

A little while ago I received an e-mail notification that there was a new post in this thread, but there has been nothing new here since a week ago (and that was my own post).

Apparently today's e-mail notification was also not a result of the error in the test being corrected -- I see no change there either.

What the heck is going on? Is this test question short-circuiting or something?
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Slava]

Dear Amy,
You are absolutely correct. I made all essential changes in the test.
Many thanks.
Slava

[Yankee]