Please help with test answer

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

Moderator: Alan

Locked
famousbeagle
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:21 pm
Status: Other

Please help with test answer

Post by famousbeagle »

Hi,

On a practice test, this sentence was given with the instructions to select the correct version:

The English teacher, Mrs. Jensen, is nicer than any teacher in the whole school.

This is obviously a bit nonsensical, because “any teacher” would include Mrs. Jensen, and she can’t be nicer than herself. Two of the four answers were wrong for obvious reasons, but answers A and B were as follows:

A) The English teacher, Mrs. Jensen, is nicer than any other teacher in the whole school.

B) The English teacher, Mrs. Jensen, is as nice as any other teacher in the whole school.

The test claimed that B was the correct answer. (No explanation was given.) Can you please tell me why answer A is incorrect? To me, they seem like two different, but correct, statements.

Thanks!
User avatar
Alan
Teacher/Moderator
Teacher/Moderator
Posts: 15204
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
Status: Teacher of English
Location: Japan

Re: Please help with test answer

Post by Alan »

To my mind only (A) equates semantically to the original, which is, as you rightly point out, nonsensical as written!
Locked