we didn’t have a very nice holiday.the weather was …waful.
A.completely B.totally c.absolutely D.terribly
Sales of magarine rose last year …those of butter
A.comparing B.at the expense of C.at a loss of C.with regard to
explain to me about your selection
First, what is your selection, Dandelion?
My opinion
- We didn’t have a very nice holiday. The weather was awful.
- Sales of margarine rose last year comparing to those of butter.
You seem to have missed the point with this one. You’ve completely ignored the options which need to be added.
That’s incorrect.
“awful” is already extremely bad or unpleasant.
I see no need for any of those adverbs.
No, ‘awful’ is not an absolute, E2. You may see no need to use an adverb, but please allow me to do so.
You beat me to it, MM.
There are degrees of awfulness, E2.
i choose C for the first one and A for the later
I choose C only. Somewhere I read about ‘absolutely’ (and perhaps another adverb that I have since forgotten) being able to fill this slot in front of many adjectives where others cannot:
absolutely awful/wonderful/perfect – OK
completely awful/wonderful/perfect – not OK
And actually, it seems to me that it has something to do with what E2 is talking about. ‘Absolutely’ in the way we use it does not carry ‘degree’ in the same way that many other similar adverbs do… or something like that.
Wish I could remember what I read and where I read it. Rats.
I would have thought that as “rose last year” is obviously past tense, that “comparing” may be incorrect as it is present tense. I would have said “compared” which is also past tense.
alanc202
Hello, alanc – and welcome to English-test.net.
Yes, I think that was the response that Beeesneees was trying to elicit from E2 in her post farther up the thread. Although I doubt the present participle could be employed in that structure in any tense (‘Margarine sales are rising now comparing to butter’?); ‘compared to’ seems rather fixed to me.