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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Take and Spend
Take and Spend
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quickfind2468
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Take and Spend
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Help me to find out the sentence taht has the same meaning as the given one:
" It took him three hours to do his homework"
A. He did his homework in three hours.
B. He spent three hours doing his homework.
C. He did his homework three hours ago.
D. He finished his homework three hours ago.
The key is "A". However I think that "B" is same with "It took him three hours to do his homework". Please help me to find out the difference. |
11 Sep 2010
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ELOJOLIE274
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i �m not a native speaker but I thing both A & B mean the same thing...
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11 Sep 2010
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yanogator
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To me, they �re not exactly the same, but definitely close enough. I would mildly agree with A because it indicates that he definitely finished his assignment. In B, we know that he was working on it for three hours, but he might not have finished.
There is also a tiny difference between the given sentence and A. The given sentence has a slightly negative tone, very mildly implying that he could have finished sooner. Sentence A is just a statement of fact. It could have a small positive "spin" to it, but definitely doesn �t sound negative.
I hope this doesn �t confuse the matter too much,
Bruce |
11 Sep 2010
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elderberrywine
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A means he finished it, which corresponds to the given sentence
B means there would have been more homework, but he stopped working on it
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11 Sep 2010
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SueThom
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A-a-ahh, the subtleties of language!
I agree with Bruce �s explanation, but to take it just a bit further, when I first read A, I had a mental image of someone who sat at his desk, got right down to it, and after 3 hours of work put the finished homework away and went on to the next thing on that day �s "to do" list.
When I read B, I pictured someone who sat down at his desk, started his HW, doodled a bit, did a little more HW, daydreamed for a few minutes, etc. In the end, he spent 3 hours doing what could have been done in an hour. "Spent" can sometimes have a negative spin similar to "wasted".
The title of the post made me think of the sentences "He took 3 hours to do his HW" and "It took him 3 hours to do his HW". The first one is similar to B. With the second one, I imagine a student who �s having trouble, e.g. all the other students in the class finished the same assignment in an hour, but this poor guy struggled for 3 hours before he finally finished it.
OK, probably TMI (too much information)...sorry.
Sue
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11 Sep 2010
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quickfind2468
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I thinks that A and B aren �t exactly same. Thanks a lot! |
14 Sep 2010
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quickfind2468
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I thinks that A and B aren �t exactly same. Thanks a lot! |
14 Sep 2010
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