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Ask for help > WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS QUESTION?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS QUESTION?
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gulsahbilge67
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WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS QUESTION?
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Hi, everybody! What do you think about this question? Sue: Are you doing anything on Sunday afternoon? Would you like to go for a walk? Doris: I �m sorry, but I can �t. .................................................... with my grandparents. A.) We are going to have dinner B.) I �m going to buy meat C.) We are going to give a party D.) I �m going to text I think the correct answer is A, but some colleagues oppose to it. They say dinner and afternoon are irrelevant because evening is a must for dinner. However, my Oxford dictionary says that it is eaten either in the "middle" of the day or in the evening. I searched on the net and I learnt that in some regions, it can be eaten in the afternoon. So, I conclude that we can regard dinner as "main meal". Am I right? Some colleagues think the correct answer is C. I do not accept it because I have never heard "give a party with" expression. "Give a party for" is acceptable, but the former is not. Especially the native speakers, what do you think about the question? Greetings from Turkey, G�lşah
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24 Nov 2015
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cunliffe
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Hi Gulsah, A very interesting question! If answer A is correct, then Sue is referring to herself and one other (her husband?) so she switches from �I � to �we � and they obviously need some time to get ready and/or travel to her parents, since dinner is from about 6pm, though people arranging to go out for dinner normally meet at about 7pm. In other areas - you are right - dinner is at midday. You have breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. This is in some parts of the North of England (can �t speak for anywhere else). This answer would make sense, although a more natural utterance would be, �We �ll be having dinner with my parents. � Option B is perfect grammatically speaking, but strange! Why would you have to go and buy meat at a particular time (especially Sunday!) with your parents? I agree with you about option C. We are hosting or putting on a party would be more usual. But we are giving a party with my parents is possible. You and they are organising the party for someone else. D is not right as you would just text your parents, not with your parents and... as an excuse, it �s poor! You can text them anytime. I have a horrible suspicion that the test requires answer B, since Sue is asking Doris and is there an expectation that she reply in the first person? Just some thoughts - I haven �t got a definitive answer for you, sorry! The only answer I would rule out is D. |
24 Nov 2015
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almaz
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I agree with you, G�lşah. "Dinner" can be regarded as the main meal of the day � so whether it�s afternoon or evening is immaterial. In any case, you may be helping your parents to prepare the dinner or they may just want you to be early, so going for a walk in the afternoon would be out of the question anyway.
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24 Nov 2015
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huddersboy
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if it �s british english then the answer is A as (especially in the north where i �m from) we refer to the 3 meals as Breakfast, dinner, tea (evening meal) that �s why british kids refer to it as school dinners rather than school lunch but the americanisation of our language/culture means the word lunch is being used more often |
24 Nov 2015
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gulsahbilge67
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Dear Cunliffe, Actually, I haven �t thought that Sue and Doris may have a wife-husband relation. And I do not think there is a switch because it is not Sue, but Doris who uses the term "we". I just ragarded them as friends  Anyway, it is a very conflicting question and unfortunately in poor quality. I agree with you. Somehow, all choices seem both acceptable and unacceptable in different aspects. Many thanks for your explanations. I got what you intended to mean. |
25 Nov 2015
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gulsahbilge67
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Dear Almaz, Thanks for the explanation. I agree that it is an inconsistent question in terms of context. And I have just noticed that I made a mistake in the question. It �s not parents, but "grandparents" indeed!!! Doris has a plan with her grandparents. Sorry. It is geting more weird  What a question it is!!!
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25 Nov 2015
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gulsahbilge67
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Dear Huddersboy, Thanks for your contribution. I do not think they wanted to mention about the North England. I guess they just wanted to make up a question. However, they managed to make an ordinary question more than nothing, but a debate issue among teachers Only answer A seems meaningul to me as the others are more irrelavant than others.
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25 Nov 2015
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alien boy
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Hi G! � Doris� response doesn�t mean that she & Sue are going to do something with her her grandparents. If Sue & Doris were going to see them together, her reply would be something like: �Don�t you remember, Sue? We can�t! We�re going to ... with my grandparents.�� � It�s also possible that Doris and the rest of her group (it could be her partner, children or other family members, too, not just a husband) need to travel to get to her grandparents��home for dinner. In Australia it�s�common to travel some distance to meet with other family members or friends! � B would be permissible, but not something most people would consider part of their everyday experience. I had, however, been known to�take my grandparents shopping, especially as they became older and less mobile. In some�places it�s common to buy�goods once a month in larger quantities (it can be much cheaper to �buy in bulk�). Just ask anyone who�shops at Costco or lives in remote areas.� � All 4 answers are grammatically and�contextually possible, but not necessarily common. � I�d go with A as being the most likely response, followed by B, then C and finally D. � Cheers, AB�
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25 Nov 2015
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spinney
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By the way, they don �t just say breakfast, dinner tea in The North. I �ve heard them say it in London. We also say it in much of East Anglia. The women that used to supervise the afternoon school meals when I was a child were called "dinner ladies." In fact, there was a BBC comedy series about it. Thanks for bringing this up. It has me biting my tongue when I have to teach them "breakfast, lunch, dinner." I just want to scream "breakfast, dinner, tea, supper!" Oh, and number B would be possible depending on the context.
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26 Nov 2015
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Tapioca
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Hi Gülşah, I guess the first question to ask, is what is this attempting to test? Because I don �t think the answers to this question from students will tell you very much that is useful about their language skills. My first reaction was that any of those answers could be possible. Nothing really rules any option out - you can create a viable scenario for each one and while some are �less natural sounding � than others, I wouldn �t say that any are ungrammatical. To be honest it �s just a poorly-constructed multiple choice question, because there is simply no single �correct � answer and even if you asked for the �best � response, there is no single stand-out choice. By the way, you referred to Doris and �his � grandparents, but Doris is a woman �s name. :-) Tap |
27 Nov 2015
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