| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Off topic: English test Thread poster: Timothy Barton
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Uldis Liepkalns 
Latvia
Local time: 15:04
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
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| You're right :) | Apr 24, 2005 |
Blithe wrote: 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 73% Expert all my mistakes in the expert section occurred because I actually thought about answers, and that's wrong  . The right way to do it is to answer on an autopilot! It was fun anyway.
As a non-native speaker I also did the test, the results were not much below average here (didn't save them, though), but the idea as such, IMHO, is right- I entered answers as they sounded right to me, the more I started to ponder, the less sure I was...
Uldis
| | | | Pavle Perencevic
Canada
Local time: 05:04
Member (2002)
Serbian to English
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[quote]Kevin Kelly wrote:
Sorry to disappoint you Pavle, but the sentence in the test (my test, anyway) was "She complains to whomever she can find." This is absolutely correct; "whoever" is incorrect.
Thanks for pointing this out, Kevin. Of course, "whomever" is correct here. But for some reason, the sentence from the test was changed to "She complains to _______ will listen" in the Key (http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/). I copied it from there. In this case only "whoever" will do.
As for farther and further, according to Webster's, "farther" too can be used in an abstract sense: "As adverbs they continue to be used interchangeably whenever spatial, temporal or metaphorical distance is involved." The sentence in question does involve metaphorical distance ("He is __________ along in his academic program than he thought"), so the two are interchangeable in this case, and whoever chose "farther" was, strictly speaking, not wrong. Sure, "farther" is used less frequently (and probably less and less frequently) in this sense than "further", but that doesn't make such usage incorrect, at least not just yet. It's definitely not the same kind of clear-cut case as "risky-risque" or "affect-effect".
[Edited at 2005-04-24 23:35]
| | | | Timothy Barton
Local time: 14:04
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Eats, shoots and leaves... | Apr 24, 2005 |
Kevin Kelly wrote: Sorry to disappoint you Pavle, but the sentence in the test (my test, anyway) was "She complains to whomever she can find." This is absolutely correct; "whoever" is incorrect. Thanks for pointing this out, Kevin. Of course, "whomever" is correct here. But for some reason, the sentence from the test was changed to "She complains to _______ will listen" in the Key ( http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/). I copied it from there. In this case only "whoever" will do.
Could you add a comma before or after the word "only". The sentence is ambiguous and I'm not sure what you meant.
I'm really not sure which would be correct in the sentence given in the answers as it is both subject and object. I suspect that "whoever" would be best. In any case, the dictionary refers to "whomever" as literary, so there is no real need to insist on making the difference between the two in many contexts.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 14:04
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Whom and whomever are used rarely in American English and I have read in grammar books that it is acceptable to never use either of these.
Now what?
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Pavle Perencevic
Canada
Local time: 05:04
Member (2002)
Serbian to English
+ ...
| missing comma | Apr 25, 2005 |
[quote]Timothy Barton wrote:
Could you add a comma before or after the word "only". The sentence is ambiguous and I'm not sure what you meant.
I'm really not sure which would be correct in the sentence given in the answers as it is both subject and object. I suspect that "whoever" would be best. In any case, the dictionary refers to "whomever" as literary, so there is no real need to insist on making the difference between the two in many contexts.
Sorry about the confusion: In this case, only whoever will do. As I said before, that's because a subject cannot be in the objective case. By the same token, sentences such as "Me and X are going to the mall", though frequently heard, are incorrect because "me", the objective case of "I", is part of the subject.
| | | | Pavle Perencevic
Canada
Local time: 05:04
Member (2002)
Serbian to English
+ ...
Edward Potter wrote:
Whom and whomever are used rarely in American English and I have read in grammar books that it is acceptable to never use either of these.
Now what?
You have to use "whom" at least in nondefining relative clauses:
The Prince, whom few see as the future king, still has hopes for the throne.
| | | | IanW (X)
Local time: 14:04
German to English
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| 40/40 = 80%? | Apr 25, 2005 |
Hmm, I got 40 out of 40 questions right, but for some reason only "80% expert":
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!"
Very strange
| | | | Kirill Semenov
Ukraine
Local time: 15:04
Member (2004)
English to Russian
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| 40 out of 40 _answered_ | Apr 25, 2005 |
Ian Winick wrote:
Hmm, I got 40 out of 40 questions right, but for some reason only "80% expert":
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!"
Very strange
If you mean those numbers which are shown at the top right corner, then, I believe, it's simply the number of questions answered (like 10 of 40 for the first page, 20 of 40 for the second, etc.)
[Edited at 2005-04-25 06:18]
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| | Blithe
Local time: 08:04
Russian
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| it's a computer mistake | Apr 25, 2005 |
Ian Winick wrote:
Hmm, I got 40 out of 40 questions right, but for some reason only "80% expert":
"You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert!"
Very strange
There's a disclaimer at the Answer Key page:
quote
It's not my fault!
Regarding your results page
This is how it works: I wrote the questions, and I assigned points to each correct question. The program (or whatever it is called) on OKCupid calculates your score based on your answers and the points that I assigned to each answer. Sometimes its calculations are wrong, giving you 0% when you answered all of them correctly in reality. I am very sorry about this; however, there is nothing I can do about it! That is one of the main reasons I created this blog - so you can check your answers. Please don't get mad at me and post the fact that OKCupid scored your test wrong.
unquote
You did great, Ian!
| | | | Jannelies (X)
Local time: 14:04
English to Dutch
| Not too bad... | Apr 27, 2005 |
I'm still a student and I only discovered this interesting Web site yesterday! Of course I did the test, and here are the results:
You scored 92% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 86% Expert!
It was fun!
| | | | | Don't take it too seriously | Apr 28, 2005 |
"English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!"
It's OK for just having fun, but this is an extremely easy test for English copyeditors -- or any translator who translates into English regularly. (In other words, don't take a perfect score too seriously.)
If you want to test your skills, you might try tests administered by editorial services firms or publishers. Here's... See more "English Genius
You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!"
It's OK for just having fun, but this is an extremely easy test for English copyeditors -- or any translator who translates into English regularly. (In other words, don't take a perfect score too seriously.)
If you want to test your skills, you might try tests administered by editorial services firms or publishers. Here's one possibility (which may or may not be any good -- I just pulled it off Google).
Aziz ▲ Collapse
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Gosh! I would be surprised if translators didn't get things like that right! I'm glad it was only intended as a fun thing. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for L1 English with a reduced education. I can't possibly see how this test is even realistic as to assessing English languae competence. Okay, I'm being picky, but its all rather straight forward. As to other comments on ESL speakers doing better, I would be surprised that L1 speakers of English didn't perform well, as speak... See more Gosh! I would be surprised if translators didn't get things like that right! I'm glad it was only intended as a fun thing. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for L1 English with a reduced education. I can't possibly see how this test is even realistic as to assessing English languae competence. Okay, I'm being picky, but its all rather straight forward. As to other comments on ESL speakers doing better, I would be surprised that L1 speakers of English didn't perform well, as speaking another language should also help with your knowledge of English. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Can Altinbay
Local time: 08:04
Japanese to English
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In memoriam | I dare say they could have used an editor themselves... | May 12, 2005 |
Nazim Aziz Gokdemir wrote: "English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!" It's OK for just having fun, but this is an extremely easy test for English copyeditors -- or any translator who translates into English regularly. (In other words, don't take a perfect score too seriously.) If you want to test your skills, you might try tests administered by editorial services firms or publishers. Here's one possibility (which may or may not be any good -- I just pulled it off Google). Aziz
Long sentences result in awkward construction more than once in their own text.
| | | | Can Altinbay
Local time: 08:04
Japanese to English
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In memoriam | Consider the source | May 12, 2005 |
fatagina wrote:
Gosh! I would be surprised if translators didn't get things like that right! I'm glad it was only intended as a fun thing. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for L1 English with a reduced education. I can't possibly see how this test is even realistic as to assessing English languae competence. Okay, I'm being picky, but its all rather straight forward. As to other comments on ESL speakers doing better, I would be surprised that L1 speakers of English didn't perform well, as speaking another language should also help with your knowledge of English.
This test is on a site that is basically a dating service. It's a "fun" test for people on the site to play with.
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