The Fiesta is preventing our delivery...

English as a Second Language English Teacher Explanations (ESL Tests)
1

Test No. [color=blue]incompl/inter-45 “Speaking 2 (At the Supermarket)”, question 2

The reason for this is that the Fiesta is … our delivery lorry from leaving the premises.

(a) holding
(b) keeping
(c) preventing
(d) promoting

Test No. [color=blue]incompl/inter-45 “Speaking 2 (At the Supermarket)”, answer 2

The reason for this is that the Fiesta is preventing our delivery lorry from leaving the premises.

Correct answer: (c) preventing

Hi Alan and Torsten! I don’t get at all the sentence-
The reason…
Tell me: What is it? Many thanks
Student

2

Hi Student,

Let me explain Question 2 in test 45. The correct answer is: The reason for this is (this means simply ‘because’) that the Fiesta (the name of a make of Ford car) is preventing (stopping) our delivery lorry from leaving the premises (the site). In other words the car is in the way and the lorry can’t get out.

Alan

3

Good evening, Alan. Your explanation is convincing, but I don`t understand why I cannot use “keep” like alternative to the phrase. My best regards.

4

Hi Cristovam,

You could probably get away with using ‘keeping’ but it wouldn’t be the best of the possible answers.
In any multiple choice questions you have to choose the best of all the alternatives.

5

Hi Cristovam,

The reason why I chose ‘prevent’ in this test rather than ‘keep’ is principally because of the force of the verb indicating that the car is stopping the lorry from leaving. ‘Keep’ in the sense of ‘obstruct’ is more associated with animate subjects since it indicates that there is some kind of intentional obstruction as in:

The athlete in the race was accused of unfairness because he was deliberately keeping the other members of the team from overtaking him.

Alan