There’s still some way to go with this latest project but I think we’ve broken the back of it.
Correct answer: (b) broken
Your answer was: [color=red]incorrect
There’s still some way to go with this latest project but I think we’ve smashed the back of it.
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To avoid further confusion, I should repeat that the sentence reads: we’ve broken the back of it. You might know the old proverb: The last straw that broke the camel’s back. This refers to the story of how just one more piece of straw was too much for the camel to carry on its back and as a result the camel’s back was broken. This is the idea behind the test sentence suggesting that you have reached the point where you have done the greatest part of the project and there is not much left for you to do.
This is most curious,
I see that you chose “smashed” and the test says that “broken” is correct.
I take it that this saying varies from state to state, from county to county, right?
No, ‘broken’ is correct if you are looking for a general expression. That is what I intended to say, but my fingers were working faster than my brain.
I would not rule out ‘smashed’ to indicate ‘brokrn completely’ as an alternative in informal speech though. (In the same way as we can say ‘he smashed the record’ to indicate that he broke it, but by a considerable degree.)
I would ‘rule it out’. I think that’s a bit misleading to line up ‘break’ with ‘smash’ in the sort of context suggested in the test of completing a major part.
