Could you please expalin for me about the differences between “invalid” and “disable” in this MCQ:
The tragic accident left her a…
a. invalid b. cripple c. disable d. patient
The correct answer is c. disable, means “injury that affects somebody permanently so that they can not walk or use a part of their body”. However, the word “invalid” also means “a person who is weak or disable because of illness or injury”.
The second MCQ makes me confused between “renovate” and “restore”
“Now that we have the money to do it, shall we … the hall?”
a. renovate b. repair c. restore d. repaint
c. restore is correct, means "prepare an old building or picture, so that looks as good as it did originally, but renovate means “repair and paint old building so that it is in good condition again”.
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1-- The correct answer is not C. There is no correct answer, since the blank space is limited by the indefinite article ‘a’. These are correct if the sentence is changed:
[i]1. The tragic accident left her disabled
The tragic accident left her an invalid[/i].
2-- There are 4 correct answers: renovate, restore, repair and repaint. Any of these are possible, although likelihood changes depending on the meaning chosen for ‘hall’.
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I’m not sure what the fact of a word being seen as non-PC has to do with the question above.
Looking at the words offered by MrM, above, there is a problem. Both “invalid” and “disabled” are general terms, but “cripple”, whether one likes the word or not, is precise. If one needs to be precise regarding the present state of the accident victim, one may need to find less-general words.
“Left him (a) quadraplegic”, for example, would be more precise that either “disabled” or “invalid”.
Don’t use words that make disabled people seem frail or dependent, like ‘victim of’, ‘crippled by’, or ‘suffering from’. The word ‘invalid’ should also be avoided as it can be understood as the person is ‘not valid’.
So, to sum things up here, MM answered the question that was asked, pointing out why neither “invalid” nor “disable” work in the sentence. Molly pointed out that “cripple” does work. Molly and MM both mentioned that “cripple” is/can be politically incorrect.
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And Molly pointed out that for some, “an invalid” is also non-PC.
Molly also pointed out that the correct answer, from the choices given in the gap-fill, would most likely be “cripple”, as that also seemed to be causing doubt in the thread post. Do you agree?
BTW, this is the original reason MrM gave for each option in the gap-fill not being suitable:
Did you actually intend to leave the indefinite article (“a”) in that sentence, Jimb0678? Or is that just a typo? (to me, the sentence is wrong with the word “a” in it.)
I would agree that “The tragic accident left her crippled” is OK to say.
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