Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Hi everyone –
I am now learning English as a second language. I have some questions, and I hope someone could answer them for me.
1.
Judy, selected to participate in the honors program, must have made all A+ in this semester.
Is this sentence correct? If not, how should I revise it? What does "the honors program" mean?
2.
a. The three-year-old boy, locked in the car for five hours under the sun, died without being noticed.
b. The three-year-old boy locked in the car for five hours under the sun died without being noticed.
Are they correct? If not, how should I revise them? Do you say "under the sun" in English? Why not "IN the sun"? Between the two sentences, which is better? Why?
3.
a. The biggest diamond in the world, having been kept in a safe for centuries, was stolen last week.
b. The biggest diamond in the world having been kept in a safe for centuries was stolen last week.
Are they correct? If not, how should I revise them? What's the difference between them? Can I say "ON the world" instead?
Thanks!
I've got a few minutes, so I'll tackle #1.
Judy, selected to participate in the honors program, must have made all A+ in this semester.
First, an "honors program" recognizes students with high grade point averages, usually higher than 3.0 (which would equate to all grades of B). There are some variations between schools and levels, but the basic idea is to recognize their achievement ... a special pin, a certificate, special privileges, special courses, etc.
Regarding sentence #1, first I have to say it's logically inconsistent. Judy could be in the honors program without having all grades of A. But I'll ignore that and just comment on the sentence structure. Here's how I would rewrite it:
Judy, selected to participate in the honors program, must have made all A+'s this semester.
When you form a plural from a letter/symbol/number (A+) it is done using an apostrophe. And you need to have a plural there because all implies multiple cases.
Notice I also dropped the in before this semester. Technically, you could leave it there and the sentence would still be correct. But it's really superfluous since the words this semester are what's called an adverbial phrase ... it modifies the verb made by specifying when the made happened. For time periods (hour, day, month, year, decade, quarter, semester) the in is implied. For example: It rained seven times this month.
Curiously, in phrases like:
... in this country.
... in this book.
... in this club
... in this forum
you need the in to be correct. But for some reason English makes an exception for time periods. I have no idea why.
under the sun, died without being noticed
sounds like poetry. But the full statement sounds so odd. It seems to explain that lack of attention was part of the cause of death. But isn't that obvious enough without being said out loud ?
You can use either "in the sun" or "under the sun." The commas are needed for clarity , though in general there are no rules for that, just common sense.
Statement 3-a is good. You need the commas. You have to use "in the world" in this case- no choice.
But you should use "largest diamond." It's more formal. "Biggest" is colloquial, and bombastic sounding, and quite crude in this case.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)