Far Up: How far up do you want to take your standard?

[Tom]

Dear all

No words that I could bring to command would do justice to your extremely generous help and support. I am very much thankful to you all. Alan ,Conchita, Jimmie, Amy (Yankee)and Mister Micawber, I love and respect you all with all my heart.

Which one of the following sentences is correct?

How far up do you want to take your standard?
How far above do you want to take your standard?

Thanks again

Tom

[Conchita]

Hello Tom,

Thank you for your kind words.

[TOM]

Hi there

How can we mention the object earlier in the sentence

Thanks

Tom

[Conchita]

Something that has been mentioned earlier is something that has been said/written previously. If we only hear: "How far above do you want to take your standard?", we don't know how far above what (above means higher than), so we assume that it has been mentioned before. If it hasn't, we need to specify it in the sentence.

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

What Conchita has explained about "above" would also apply to the sentence you wrote with the word "below". (That was in a different thread.)
i.e.:
How far below _____ do you want to take your standard?

Also in this sentence you would need to know "below what?"

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

Your words have moved me and so I can't now resist answering your question:

[Steve]