"he look sad at his party" or "he look sadly at his party"?
outof...@gmail.com
~~~~~~~
Peter looked ______ at his party because he didn't pass his final
exam.
A.happy B.happily C.sad D.sadly
~~~~~~~
Among the discussion, some argued the answer should be C, and some D.
As for me, I don't think it is a well-edited test question, for
"party," "he," and the second "his" are ambiguous.
Two definitions of "party" in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English are as follows.
http://pewebdic2.cw.idm.fr/
1) a social event when a lot of people meet together to enjoy
themselves by eating, drinking,
dancing etc
2) [British English] a group of people who go somewhere together or do
a job together
There are some others. However, I think the above two could be applied
in the sentence. I think if the "party" means the first one, then
"sad" should be filled the blank. If the "party" means the second one,
then "sadly" should be filled.
On the other hand, "he" and the second "his" can be ambiguous in the
sense that these two words might possibly refer to Peter's friend.
The purpose of this test question might be to test the usage of
"look," which can be a linking
verb and an ordinary verb. That's what my thought is; however, I am
not an English native speaker, so I can not make an absolute remark.
Thanks in advance :-)
Martin Ambuhl
> Someone on a Taiwanese forum asked the question below.
> ~~~~~~~
> Peter looked ______ at his party because he didn't pass his final
> exam.
> A.happy B.happily C.sad D.sadly
> ~~~~~~~
>
> Among the discussion, some argued the answer should be C, and some D.
> As for me, I don't think it is a well-edited test question, for
> "party," "he," and the second "his" are ambiguous.
While "party" may mean several things, this sentence makes no sense
unless it refers to a social gathering. And, because this is not a
legal document and because "party" refers to a social gathering, "party"
is not something to which "he" or "his" can be applied. There is only
one possible antecedent for "his" and "he": Peter. There is no
ambiguity there.
Either "sad" or "sadly" may be right. The most likely "correct" answer
is "sad". Peter looks sad, that is, he appears to be unhappy. But the
sentence _could_ mean that the way he looked at the people in his party
was sadly. This second interpretation seems unlikely in an exam for
English language learners.
>
> Two definitions of "party" in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
> English are as follows.
> http://pewebdic2.cw.idm.fr/
>
> 1) a social event when a lot of people meet together to enjoy
> themselves by eating, drinking,
> dancing etc
> 2) [British English] a group of people who go somewhere together or do
> a job together
>
> There are some others. However, I think the above two could be applied
> in the sentence. I think if the "party" means the first one, then
> "sad" should be filled the blank. If the "party" means the second one,
> then "sadly" should be filled.
That makes no sense. If he appeared to be sad, then it doesn't matter a
bit which of these meanings for "party" applies. If the quality of his
looking (visually regarding his party) is "sadly", then it doesn't
matter a bit which of these meanings for "party" applies.
> On the other hand, "he" and the second "his" can be ambiguous in the
> sense that these two words might possibly refer to Peter's friend.
These is no, zero , nada mention of "Peter's friend". "He" and "his" in
this sentence cannot possibly refer to someone for whom we have no
evidence of existing or evidence that his existence was even
contemplated. This item is supposed to test English competence (even if
it doesn't succeed), not how many drugs you took before the exam.
Don Phillipson
> > Someone on a Taiwanese forum asked the question below.
> > ~~~~~~~
> > Peter looked ______ at his party because he didn't pass his final
> > exam.
> > A.happy B.happily C.sad D.sadly
> > ~~~~~~~
> >
> > Among the discussion, some argued the answer should be C, and some D.
> > As for me, I don't think it is a well-edited test question, for
> > "party," "he," and the second "his" are ambiguous.
No, the reason it is a bad question is that two answers are
correct (and apparently the test writer did not know this.)
Conventional parsing helps:
A. Peter looked sad (adjective) at his party . . .
B. Peter looked sadly (adverb) at his party . . .
1. Both are grammatically correct.
2. They have different meanings. Item A describes
Peter's aspect, i.e. how other people estimated his feelings.
Item B says what he did, viz. look at the party in a
characterizable way. The meanings are very close but
parsing the words correctly helps explain the difference.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
John O'Flaherty
I don't think the interpretation of B is tenable on semantic grounds,
because a party, as a social gathering that extends through time,
isn't something that can be looked at, especially with a single facial
expression. If the interpretation is that the party is a group of
people he looked at, then that has the same flaw as introducing
another person as the referent of "he" - it's not justified on the
evidence.
--
John
Don Phillipson
news:q15444pt9eji8bqld...@4ax.com...
This dog will not run. We have insufficient context to know whether
"party" here means:
-- a social celebration, with something to drink and nibbles; or
-- an organized group of people, e.g. the Communist party
or the Smith party (met on arrival by a courier who announces
"Smith party this way please.")
(I can look just as sadly at the Smith gang as on the Communists.)
All this adds weight to the judgment that the test question is
defective since it has two right answers.
Raymot
>
>
>(I can look just as sadly at the Smith gang as on the Communists.)
>All this adds weight to the judgment that the test question is
>defective since it has two right answers.
That's all true, but we don't have the full context.
It's quite likely that the construction "he looks sad" has
been taught and contrasted with "he looks at her". Perhaps
the question was "Which is *most* correct (given what we have
been learning in Eng202)? Anyone who has done enough multi-choice
exams will know that the right answer is occasionally the most
likely of two or more possibly correct alternatives.
How would you have answered?
R.
John O'Flaherty
<e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
In that case, though, the adverb doesn't fit, for the reason I
mentioned.
>-- an organized group of people, e.g. the Communist party
>or the Smith party (met on arrival by a courier who announces
>"Smith party this way please.")
>(I can look just as sadly at the Smith gang as on the Communists.)
As is apparent from how you put that, "party" in the sense of an
organized group of people would require "on", not "at". You could look
sadly at your party (a physical group of people accompanying or
associated with you), but it's a reach as an interpretation.
>All this adds weight to the judgment that the test question is
>defective since it has two right answers.
Agreed.
--
John
DJ
I also read the forum where this question is from, so here's
something to add.
This test is from a junior high mid-term exam in Taiwan, and
the answer key given was D(sadly). A student asked his teacher
why his choice C(sad) was wrong, and his teacher couldn't give
him a satisfactory answer. So this student's other English
teacher posted the question and here we are....
--
DJ
Don Phillipson
news:IaKdnT8FCNtlI9_V...@rcn.net...
> This test is from a junior high mid-term exam in Taiwan, and
> the answer key given was D(sadly). A student asked his teacher
> why his choice C(sad) was wrong, and his teacher couldn't give
> him a satisfactory answer. So this student's other English
> teacher posted the question and here we are....
We can only hope both teachers and the student see this
thread. When no further information is provided, we must
decide by grammar alone. On grammatical grounds alone,
answer C is just as right as answer D.
The value of this lesson is dual:
1. English is a very large and very flexible language. It often
offers two or more ways of saying the identically same thing,
and usually many more ways of saying the generally same
thing, but with tiny nuances of difference.
2. Instructional textbooks sometimes contain errors. This
puts extra pressure on teachers to notice the errors (rather
than routinely use answer sheets) and explain them, but
teachers should be forewarned they must do this.
outof...@gmail.com
> Raymot wrote:
> > In article <g1u0pd$29...@theodyn.ncf.ca>, e...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca says...
Thank you all for the replies~
And thank DJ for adding the background information.
DJ
> "DJ" <nos...@no.no> wrote in message
> news:IaKdnT8FCNtlI9_V...@rcn.net...
>
>> This test is from a junior high mid-term exam in Taiwan, and
>> the answer key given was D(sadly). A student asked his teacher
>> why his choice C(sad) was wrong, and his teacher couldn't give
>> him a satisfactory answer. So this student's other English
>> teacher posted the question and here we are....
>
> We can only hope both teachers and the student see this
> thread. When no further information is provided, we must
> decide by grammar alone. On grammatical grounds alone,
> answer C is just as right as answer D.
I agree.
(Even though I first thought D was the right answer, and later
found C was also possible, but I must admit I didn't fully understand
the meanings, and I'm grateful with all the explanations in
this thread)
--
DJ
Barbara Bailey
The real question doesn't hang on which sense of "party" but on which
sense of "look" is intended. If he looked [gazed], then he looked sadly; if
he looked [appeared], he looked sad.
Woody Wordpecker
Yes indeed.
If he didn't look glad, he looked sad.
If he didn't look gladly, he looked sadly.
If he didn't look good, he looked bad.
If he didn't do a good job of looking, he looked badly.
The hypercorrect use of the "-ly" suffix is so often found
in English these days that it may have become, or may soon
become, an acceptable usage.
I recently came across "sadly" in a John Grisham book where
"sad" was clearly meant.
Interesting to think about, while "bad" is an adjective and
"badly" is an adverb, "well" can be either. A patient who
doesn't look well looks bad, but a seeker who doesn't look
well looks badly.
--
Bob Cunningham | I've been young and I've been old; young is better.
Southern California | -- Woody Wordpecker
US and A | (Paraphrasing Sophie Tucker)
Athel Cornish-Bowden
> outof...@gmail.com wrote:
>> Someone on a Taiwanese forum asked the question below.
>> ~~~~~~~
>> Peter looked ______ at his party because he didn't pass his final
>> exam.
>> A.happy B.happily C.sad D.sadly
>> ~~~~~~~
>>
>> Among the discussion, some argued the answer should be C, and some D.
>> As for me, I don't think it is a well-edited test question, for
>> "party," "he," and the second "his" are ambiguous.
>
> While "party" may mean several things, this sentence makes no sense
> unless it refers to a social gathering. And, because this is not a
> legal document and because "party" refers to a social gathering,
> "party" is not something to which "he" or "his" can be applied. There
> is only one possible antecedent for "his" and "he": Peter. There is no
> ambiguity there.
>
> Either "sad" or "sadly" may be right. The most likely "correct" answer
> is "sad".
I agree that "sad" is the most likely "correct" answer, but there is
nothing wrong with "happy", and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it.
It would be perfectly idiomatic if Peter had only taken the exams at
the insistence of his parents, and failure allowed him to fulfil his
ambition of leaving university to become a bus driver.
--
athel
Django Cat
>2. Instructional textbooks sometimes contain errors. This
>puts extra pressure on teachers to notice the errors (rather
>than routinely use answer sheets) and explain them, but
>teachers should be forewarned they must do this.
>
Not all ESL/EFL teachers worldwide are native speakers. While an expat
native-speaker teacher who sees an error like this in a locally published
coursebook(and come on, FGS, the answer *wanted* was 'he looked *sad* ') is
likely to say "that's bollocks, that is", a local teacher, even with a very
good level of English (and that doesn't always follow, by any means) may be far
more likely to think "well, I though it would be sad, but if the book says so,
I must be wrong..."
DC, purveying this wretched language to punters since 1982.
--
Django Cat
>> (Even though I first thought D was the right answer, and later
>> found C was also possible, but I must admit I didn't fully understand
>> the meanings, and I'm grateful with all the explanations in
>> this thread)
>>
>
> The real question doesn't hang on which sense of "party" but on which
>sense of "look" is intended. If he looked [gazed], then he looked sadly; if
>he looked [appeared], he looked sad.
>
Yeah, but he didn't look sadly at this great party to which he had given so
much, Barbara, did he? He was fed up at a do. If the materials writer had
wanted the 'looked sadly' response, the example would have been 'he looked
sadly at the enormous piles of beer cans, the overflowing ashtrays and the
stains on his parents' carpet, the morning after the party. (And wondered sadly
who the guy asleep in the bath was)'. Somewhere in the production process for
this coursebook or exam, in Taiwan, someone has either made a typo, or more
likely, a non-native speaker is wrongly applying a mislearnt rule that leads
them to believe all verbs are qualified *exclusively* by adverbs.
DC. I wasn't going to get involved in this...
--
Django Cat
>I recently came across "sadly" in a John Grisham book where
>"sad" was clearly meant.
>
>Interesting to think about, while "bad" is an adjective and
>"badly" is an adverb, "well" can be either. A patient who
>doesn't look well looks bad,
>
or poorly.
DC
--
Jeffrey Turner
For Item A I would use "to" rather than "at." If you look at something,
you would do it "sadly" in my book. "D," final answer.
--Jeff
--
The trouble with the world is that the
stupid are cocksure and the intelligent
are full of doubt. --Bertrand Russell
CDB
>>>> Someone on a Taiwanese forum asked the question below.
>>>> Peter looked ______ at his party because he didn't pass his final
>>>> exam.
>>>> A.happy B.happily C.sad D.sadly
>>>> Among the discussion, some argued the answer should be C, and
>>>> some D. As for me, I don't think it is a well-edited test
>>>> question, for "party," "he," and the second "his" are ambiguous.
>> No, the reason it is a bad question is that two answers are
>> correct (and apparently the test writer did not know this.)
>> Conventional parsing helps:
>> A. Peter looked sad (adjective) at his party . . .
>> B. Peter looked sadly (adverb) at his party . . .
>> 1. Both are grammatically correct.
>> 2. They have different meanings. Item A describes
>> Peter's aspect, i.e. how other people estimated his feelings.
>> Item B says what he did, viz. look at the party in a
>> characterizable way. The meanings are very close but
>> parsing the words correctly helps explain the difference.
> For Item A I would use "to" rather than "at." If you look at
> something, you would do it "sadly" in my book. "D," final answer.
That points to something that it might be useful for the OP to
consider. In A, Peter appeared unhappy (looked sad), while he was at
the celebration of which he was the host (his party); the
prepositional phrase says where he was at the time. In B, Peter gazed
(looked) at the celebration of which he was the host (his party),
while feeling sadness (sadly); the prepositional phrase says where he
was gazing. The prepositional phrase (at his party) is the same in
both cases, but its function varies with the different meanings of
"looked", as signalled by "sad" or "sadly".
If Peter looked sad *to* his party, he appeared unhappy in the
estimation of his companions (his party), which changes the meaning of
yet another word.
R J Valentine
[Woody Wordpecker (with a Bob Cunningham sig) had written, but was denied
his just attribution:]
Or "ill".
And it ill behooves a body to claim that "ill" can't be either.
--
rjv