I have a student who comes to me for private tutorials on Sunday afternoons. We often go through questions from his books that have left him puzzled. Today was especially interesting as it seemed to feature the full range of impossible to answer Chinese questions. Frankly it’s the worst book I’ve ever seen.
Here is a sample of questions which all came from the same page and the reasons that I think they are ridiculous.
Remember that for any question there is only ONE right answer.

Choose the correct answer

3. Because the situation in that country __________, all the foreigners are leaving.
a) is getting worse b) has got worse c) was getting worse d) had got worse.

Clearly both a) and b) are correct.

4. What about going to the match tonight?
Why not？And I __________ my friend with me.
a) am taking b) have taken c) take d) would take,

The only one that comes close to fitting is d) but it doesn’t sound right and isn’t logical. The best answers “can take” or “could take” aren’t there at all.

8. I __________ Beijing tomorrow. Do you know when the earliest plane __________?
a) leave for; takes off
b) am leaving for; takes off
c) leave for; is taking off
d) am leaving for; is taking off

I’m fairly sure they want b) but all four answers are perfectly normal idiomatic English.

9. How long __________ here?
I’m not sure?

a) do you stay b) are you staying c) would you stay d) did you say

Both b) and c) could fit depending on the circumstances in which the question was asked.

10 Tom, you __________ books about.

a) have always thrown b) always throw c) are always throwing d) always threw

All of the answers form perfectly grammatical sentences, albeit with slightly different meanings.

Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the indicated verb.

12. The students took eight subjects this term. They __________(take) six subjects next term.

I can think of at least four immediately without even considering the possibility of modals (take/will take/are taking/will be taking)

13 At this time tomorrow we __________(have) a meeting.

Again several forms spring to mind

14. Tom didn’t go to school today. He __________(not go) tomorrow, either.

Ditto

17. My friends came over last night. They __________(come over) tonight too.

And that, as I say is all from one page of the book. No wonder my poor student was having a hard time figuring it all out. He made a lot of careful notes which he said he wants to show to his Chinese English teacher. I wonder what the reaction will be.

As I wrote elsewhere, Multiple Choice Questions are difficult to write well, even for relatively simple English language topics.

But what to do about it? Aye, there's the rub.

I inadvertently missed out the most impossible* one of all.

5. At this time tomorrow __________ the museum.

a) we're going to visit
b) well be visiting
c) we'll visit
d) we're to visit

If you can pick between those four answers your better at this language lark than I am.


(* And yes, I know "impossible" is supposed to be one of those adjectives that you can't put "more" or "most" in front of. I don't buy it. Never have. It's just more bad advice.)

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
As I wrote elsewhere, Multiple Choice Questions are difficult to write well, even for relatively simple English language topics.

But what to do about it? Aye, there's the rub.

Well what I'd do about it is just not use them when testing language ability. I'd stick to essay style questions for writing and grammar. MCQs for this kind of subject are even more difficult than for pure factual subjects because finding plausible answers that DON'T form grammatical sentences with these gap fill style MCQs is ridiculously hard. Answers that form ungrammatical sentences are very rarely plausible enough to act as distractors.

The free gap fills that make up the rest of the test are even worse because there is only one "right" answer but probably dozens of ways to complete the sentence that will fit.

Choosing just the first one for example a few seconds thought has given me

The students took eight subjects this term. They __________(take) six subjects next term.

take, will take, will be taking, are taking, are intending to take, should take, should be taking, should have to take, must take, might take, can take, could take, need to take...

They occur to me faster than I can type them. Yet the examiner will mark all but one of them wrong - and in this case I can't say with confidence that I know which one IS the "right" one.
I've worked as an exam marker and there is no room for creative interpretation in any kind of standardised test.

By sticking to essay style questions you could start with 100 marks and knock of one mark for every error found (personally, I knock off one for every distinct error so that multiple occurences of the same error don't double count). That means that you can allow all the possible variations without penalty.

Other more complicated marking schemes are possible. of course. The trouble is that this takes longer, requires a competent marker rather than someone checking against an answer sheet, and is harder to administer consistently across large groups where many such markers must be used.

In China the size of the school poppulation means that MCQs are probably the only practical way to go so that anybody can mark them. It simply doesn't work though.

Actually one of the students other books (one I obtained for him from England - a GCSE practice book) does use a style of MCQ that works.

Each MCQ gives four complete sentences to choose from and the questions are of the form

Choose the sentence which does not contain a grammatical/ punctuation/spelling mistake.

They still need to be written carefully but at least this allows for the possibility of a question that clearly has a single correct answer.

quote:

Well what I'd do about it is just not use them when testing language ability. I'd stick to essay style questions for writing and grammar.

I suppose what I meant wasn't "What would you do to test your students" but "What could you do to correct the dreadful errors being made by the senior staff responsible".

I presume that, if you do not subject your students to these dreadful MCQ papers, they will not be credited with the marks they need.

They're national. Unless you have influence over the Chinese Government's education authorities there is nothing that can be done.

Do you think we'll have the same teaching problems here? They're teaching Mandarin in schools.

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
They're national. Unless you have influence over the Chinese Government's education authorities there is nothing that can be done.

As I wrote, "Ay, there's the rub"

Whether 'tis nobler in the work to suffer the Slings and Arrows of outrageous testing,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of incompetence,
And by opposing end one's job.

Generally, I agree with you, Bob, though in many of the above there are choices that I'd choose over others. However, who knows if I'd be right? For example, in #8, b) would be my clear firsts choice.

There is one comment of yours that I disagree with:

quote:

3. Because the situation in that country __________, all the foreigners are leaving.
a) is getting worse b) has got worse c) was getting worse d) had got worse.

Clearly both a) and b) are correct.

You thought b) was correct, along with a). I agree with a), but is b) correct? Shouldn't it be "has gotten worse?"

Yes for you and no for me. It's one of those US/UK differneces. We NEVER use gotten. I don't believe I have ever heard anyone from ENgland say "gotten".

You mean you've never been to Covent Gotten?

That's interesting, Bob, because in the U.S. "has got" would just plain be wrong. The poor Chinese students!

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Yes for you and no for me. It's one of those US/UK differneces. We NEVER use gotten. I don't believe I have ever heard anyone from ENgland say "gotten".

Although I don't often use "gotten" I do on occasion since we don't have an equivalent word in UK English ("got" is not an exact synonym). And of course, "gotten" is not an Americanism - it is UK English word that has fallen from favour here.

But, like "fall" (another UK English word that had fallen out of use in favour of "autumn"), I would not be surprised if it started to become popular again.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:

Although I don't often use "gotten" I do on occasion since we don't have an equivalent word in UK English ("got" is not an exact synonym).

Purely out of curiosity can you give me an example of a sentence where you would use "gotten" but where "got" wouldn't work in British English?

Ill-gotten gains

Check the search box for "gotten" and you get FIVE pages of times where it was used, many times by me.

quote:

Check the search box for "gotten" and you get FIVE pages of times where it was used, many times by me.

Perhaps, but the majority of posters here are Americans. "Ill-gotten gains" is a good example.

I'll give you that one but it is what we call a "fossil phrase", i.e. a set form of words that is a hangover from a previous grammatical usage.

Yes, "ill-gotten gains" isn't exactly the same as "the situation in the country has gotten worse."

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Yes, "ill-gotten gains" isn't exactly the same as "the situation in the country has gotten worse."

Kalleh's sentence is a good example of one where "got" would be a poor choice of words. "Got" would be correct but many purists would reject it.

Most UK English speakers would say, "The situation in the country has become worse."

Richard, can you give me an example of where you might use "gotten" but "got" wouldn't fit. (Other than the set phrase "ill-gotten gains") because as far as I can see they are exact synonyms - one being uised in America, the other in the UK.

There are plenty where "got" would fit - but would be considered clumsy English.

"He's gotten wealthy" would be clumsy were "gotten" to be replaced by "got". We would tend to use a different verb, such as "become".

quote:

Although I don't often use "gotten" I do on occasion since we don't have an equivalent word in UK English ("got" is not an exact synonym).

quote:

"He's gotten wealthy" would be clumsy were "gotten" to be replaced by "got". We would tend to use a different verb, such as "become".

So which is it? Are there times when you use "gotten" because "got" isn't a synonym (and therefore wouldn't fit/have the same meaning) or do you never use "gotten" choosing always to paraphrase?

If you are saying that there are places where people use "got" when a different word would be better my old English teacher, Mr Derricot, would certainly have agreed with you as one of the many bees in his bonnet was the idea that using "got" is lazy and that the word should be expunged from the language.
On the other hand, with the sole exception of the fixed phrase "ill-gotten gains" no English member of the board has yet provided an answer where, in British English, "gotten" provides a shade of meaning that "got" does not or in any way fits better.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,