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Ask for help > Help needed on listening comprehension activity
Help needed on listening comprehension activity
NanG
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Help needed on listening comprehension activity
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Hi Everyone! I need some help on this. I �m checking a listening comprehension activity in which the recording says : "The beaches were fantastic. There were many people at all" ( It doesn �t say " weren �t ") And one of the options of the True and False activity is: "There were a lot of people on the beaches." Now, my question is : Is this True or False? As far as I understand it should be False. What do you think? Thanks in advance! Nancy |
2 Oct 2015
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12bprecise
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It should say, "There weren �t many people at all." You can �t use "at all" with a positive statement. In natural pronunciation, "weren �t" would sound almost the same as "were." At the end of words, we pronounce "t" in the throat (with the glottis). You can �t hear it very easily. We would use the context to figure out whether it �s positive or negative. It �s false. If the beaches are fantastic, it �s because there weren �t many people. |
3 Oct 2015
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Tapioca
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Hi Nancy, 12b is right and I sympathise because it �s a tough one. It will sound almost EXACTLY as if the speaker is saying �were � and only the context/logic will help. Both the �n � and the �t � are lost. The vowel sound after the �w � is slightly longer than it would be if the speaker were saying �were � and probably the tone is a little higher and that should tell you that a negative is being emphasised, even if it doesn �t sound like one otherwise. Technically (if you �re interested!) it �s called glottalization. You can Google it. The best beaches are empty beaches... :-) Tap |
3 Oct 2015
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NanG
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Thank you very much for yor help !!! |
3 Nov 2015
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