Multiple choice questions: This information ... to a great many people.

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
Please have a look at these two multiple choice questions:

1.This information…to a great many people.
A. was proved to be useful
B. has been proved to be useful
C. has proved useful
=> I choose B. Am I right or wrong? (Besides, is this also correct: “This information has been proved useful…”?)

  1. There is every…of things going horribly wrong.
    A. opportunity
    B. probability
    C. chance
    D. opening
    => For this, I think both B an C make sense, but I choose C because it seems to be idiomatic. What do you think?

Thank you very much.
Nessie.

2

Hi Nessie,

The choice in 1) seems to me to be wide open because a case could be made for all three. In 2) the most natural to me would be A.

Alan

3

Alan,

What about C? There is every chance of things going horribly wrong.

Is it wrong? I thought opportunity was usually used with a positive connotation.

4

Hi,

It could be argued that the speaker is being sarcastic by hoping that everything did go wrong!

Alan

5

Hi Nessie

I agree that a case can be made for any of the options in your first sentence.
.
.
I would have chosen C for your second sentence because it strikes me as the most idiomatic of the bunch.
.

6

Thanks a lot, Alan, Amy and Daemon :slight_smile:

1/ For this, both Alan and Amy agree that all answers are possible. Uhm… it’s still not very clear: I agree that according to the context, the correct choice may be “was proved to be useful”, “has been proved to be useful” or “has been proved useful”, but I can’t make it out why “has proved useful” is correct: how can the information prove itself useful? :open_mouth:

2/ And for this:
Alan choose A and Amy choose C: is it a difference between British English and American English sense? I also wonder why “probability” is incorrect here. It seems to make sense, doesn’t it?

Thank you very much once again :slight_smile:
Nessie.

7

Hi Nessie

For sentence 1, I actually prefer C. You might look at that wording as a reduction of “has proved (itself) to be useful”.

For sentence 2, I would choose C because in AmE the collocation “there is every chance” is a commonly used one (both with and without “there is”). Ultimately, though, it is the combination with “there is” AND the idea of “go wrong” that would lead me to choose C over the other options.
.