[clarity]

1.It was said ___was all ___they could do in the case.
A. that that ...waht B that that ...that
Cthat what...that D that which... what
I choose B ,but the key is A. I do not know why.


2Air is to us____water is to fish.
Athat B how C what Dwhy
I choose C but they key is A

In China there are some kind of these exercises existing. Sometimes i can not explain to students clearly. sometimes i think the exercise is stupid but they have to do.What a terrible thing. But i will try to reduce them to do this kind of exercise too much. Thanks everybody here for your support and help. thanks in advance。

[susan53]

Ex 1
A is not correct. You are correct with B, but there are actually several possible correct versions of this sentence (ignore the highlighting for the moment - I'll explain later) :

1.It was said that that was all that they could do ...
2.It was said that was all that they could do ...
3.It was said that that was all they could do ...
4.It was said that was all they could do ...


The problem here is that there are three different uses of "that" in one sentence. I've distinguished them by underlining one use, putting the second in bold and the third in italics :

A. that is a conjunction, joining the main clause It was said with the subordinate clauses that was all they could do. It would be pronounced /ðət/ and is an optional component of the sentence - ie it can be omitted as in versions 2 and 4 of the sentence above. In general, the more formal the style, the more likely it is to be included.

B. that is a demonstrative pronoun, the same as in Look at that cat! It is pronounced /ðæt/

C. that is a relative pronoun, as in The house that I used to live in has been knocked down. Like the conjunction, it's pronounced /ðət/. Here it is in object position and therefore is again an optional component of the sentence. In versions 3 and 4 of the sentence it is omitted.


Ex 2

You are correct and the book is wrong. The correct answer is C and A is not possible.

I don't usually recommend burning books, but in this case ....

[clarity]

Thanks a lot. so many English books ,but most of which should be rubbsih

[clarity]

Thanks a lot .maybe doing this exercise may waste many people's time