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 #2 (permalink) Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:50 am Contain/hold |
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Hi Franz,
This is an interesting question. Clearly as you saw, supporting is wrong but the question is why hold and not contain. The conventional word when referring to the seating capacity of a hall/stadium/theatre is hold when we are talking about people. Contain is used more for inanimate objects. We could put the two verbs together and say:
The theatre is capable of holding 2,000 people and contains several bars and the usual facilities.
Alan
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| #3 (permalink) Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:39 am Contain/hold |
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| Alan wrote: | Hi Franz,
This is an interesting question. Clearly as you saw, supporting is wrong but the question is why hold and not contain. The conventional word when referring to the seating capacity of a hall/stadium/theatre is hold when we are talking about people. Contain is used more for inanimate objects. We could put the two verbs together and say:
The theatre is capable of holding 2,000 people and contains several bars and the usual facilities.
Alan |
How about "accommodating" (I can say "The building can accommodate all of the guests") ??? |
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Lost_Soul
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| #4 (permalink) Thu Sep 21, 2006 16:25 pm Contain vs hold |
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| well, as I know, accommodate has a meaning of providing somebody a room to live in . Does it mean something similar with "hold" or "contain"????? :roll: :roll: |
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FangFang
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| #5 (permalink) Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:26 am Hold/contain/accommodate |
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| As FangFang rightly pointed out, 'accommodate' usually has the sense of providing lodging for someone: the hotel can accommodate sixty visitors. Yet the term also means 'hold/contain' and could have been used in the test sentence, as Lost Soul suggested. |
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Conchita
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| #6 (permalink) Sun Jul 04, 2010 16:32 pm Contain vs hold |
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would "hosting" also be all right to use?
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 Cristina.ro
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| #7 (permalink) Sun Jul 04, 2010 17:30 pm Contain vs hold |
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That would be fine in this context, Cristina. However it is not one of the choices in this question.
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Beeesneees
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| #8 (permalink) Sun Jul 04, 2010 18:23 pm Contain vs hold |
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| Beeesneees wrote: | | That would be fine in this context, Cristina. However it is not one of the choices in this question. |
But this question inherently doesn't have ANY choices... The test taker is supposed to fill in the gap with his own choice.
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| #9 (permalink) Sun Jul 04, 2010 18:51 pm Contain vs hold |
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Sorry, I should have looked at the format of the question more carefully. I assumed it was of the standard multiple choice answer kind.
Anyway, on second thoughts, the room doesn't do the hosting. So it wouldn't work... probably :-S
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Beeesneees
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| #10 (permalink) Sun Jul 04, 2010 19:00 pm Contain vs hold |
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| Beeesneees wrote: | | So it wouldn't work... probably :-S |
Heh, for a moment there I thought the test needed some editing... ))
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| #11 (permalink) Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:23 am Contain vs hold |
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Hi,
In the test the subject of the sentence is 'the main hall'. When you use the verb 'host', the subject is invariably human or a group of people as in: The debating society will be hosting the next conference on public speaking.
Alan
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