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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Please help!
Please help!
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L. habach
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Please help!
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Hello everybody.
Can anybody help explain why C. is the correct answer in this sentence?
It is very difficult to make both ends meet these days the taxes _____ so high.
A. with
B. are
C. being
D. to be |
23 Jun 2021
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yanogator
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Hi, First, there should be a comma after "days". I�m sure you think that B is the correct answer, which would be right if there were a period or semi-colon after "days". Since this is one sentence, we can�t have a separate independent clause, which we would have with "the taxes are so high". That would produce a run-on sentence. You might feel more comfortable if we added the word "with" after the comma I added, producing "It is very difficult to make both ends meet these days, with the taxes being so high". That is the actual sense of the sentence, and it turns out that the word "with" can be used or omitted, without changing the meaning or the grammar of the sentence. Does that help? Bruce |
23 Jun 2021
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mistertroy2000
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the saying is also "make ends meet" not "make BOTH ends meet." |
24 Jun 2021
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savilla
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I think the correct answer is C, or possibly B. There should a comma or a semicolon but being is correct because you need progressive (continuous) tense. The taxes have been high and it�s expected they will continue to be high in the future. Was any more context provided for the question? @mistertroy2000 I wasn�t sure about this but apparently the idiom was originally "make both ends meet", from a French expression joindre les deux bouts so it�s probably still correct. "Make ends meet" is more common though! |
24 Jun 2021
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aperkins4
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Bruce is absolutely correct. Since we are looking at a single sentence, B does not work. You would need a period after "days" and a capital letter starting the next sentence (or else a semicolon or comma+conjunction to make a compound sentence).
C is the correct answer because it`s forming a gerund phrase that functions as a noun. "the taxes being so high" is a noun phrase, and it functions as the object of the prepositional phrase Bruce provided. |
28 Jun 2021
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themedwriters
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What is the difference between Medical Writing For Marketing and Technical Medical Writing? |
30 Jun 2021
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douglas
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Dear Themedwriters, Please don�t spam our forum. Thank-you, Douglas |
2 Jul 2021
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