[uss]

Woah, I be gettin' some mighty long answers!

Originally posted by Bungleau: Uss, First thing I'll note is that these seem to be mostly sentence fragments, and not full sentences. The full sentence can often give you more information about what's being discussed.

Oh yes, that's right. The 'a' and 'the' dilemma would be solved if we had full sentences!

quote: So here I am. This is crazy! I always get 3's on my English word tests, but 5's(A's) on my English Unit Tests. I'd really like to know which one of us is the idiot. She has been an English teacher for more than 10 years, but what she thinks seems so.. incorrect. My stupidity or her senility?

Senility? I'd hate to think that sets in during one's mid-30s, where I anticipate this teacher is. Stupidity? I think not, since you're in class to learn. I suspect it's different perspectives... [/QUOTE]Eh, to be honest, I'm sure she's not in her mid thirties. She's more like twice that age and then some extra. Whatever age she is, and however much she has teached, I said 'More than 10 years' which means '10-to-unlimited years.'

[quote]

[qb] But across the board, there are no right or wrong answers, based on what you've indicated here. There are only shades of meaning and interpretation. If there's additional material that clarifies the question, you may have to toss out everything I've written.

We have Units in the book, which contain certain stories or such, in which the expressions are used. All of her expressions(the ones that I "should have" written) are obviously the same as the ones in the book. But still, there are no real rules that force me to write the expressions exactly as written in the book. Or if there was, it would only be fair to clear the contexts out!

"To watch them march into the mist in amazement" says that those doing the marching are the ones in amazement. "To watch them in amazement as they march into the mist" says that the watcher is in amazement. I'd probably write "In amazement, I watch them march into the mist". Any one can be correct, depending on the context of the sentence, which isn't given here.

The angering part is that I would have also written "In amazement, I watch them march into the mist," BUT there is some ludicrous thing that people can only write *exactly* as it was initially written by the teacher(on the revision paper). So we *have* to use 'one's' instead of 'my' or 'your' and such. A very wrong way to teach, in my opinion!

Regarding the "carve a face in a mountain" -- your teacher is correct that it is written correctly, unless you have a particular mountain in mind, that is. However, your teacher cites an "exception" to the rule. This is made up. It's BS. There aren't really "exceptions" to the rule, there are only differing applications of the rule to a particular situation. This is what those of us who have been teachers call "backpedalling" or "making stuff up" -- we do that when a bright student corners us.

Heh, I know what you mean. I don't know what she meant by 'There are exceptions,' but as far as I know, she's the one creating them!

Salvation 'To watch in amazement, to march them into the mist'

There was no comma in the 'right' expression we were given. Another flaw, albeit a small one, perhaps.

Also, in my sentence 'To watch them to march into the mist in amazement,' she said: "How could this sentence be correct? There isn't even a 'To' in front of 'march!'" To my knowledge, there's no damn point to make it be 'To watch them to march into the mist in amazement' so she was incorrect with that. She has teached so many years.. yet she still says 'Write as less as possibe' and makes other stupid flaws. Seeing as I've gotten all sorts of English teachers who don't really know all that much about English(or know practically anything, in some peoples' case), the situation's passed the point where it becomes depressing. I tend to be the only one who asks the teacher if she's truly correct, since others in my group can't speak English all that well, and they aren't enough sure if what they think is true, so they don't ask questions.

I apologize for any incorrect sentences or any such that I have made in this post. Writing a post for 2 hours isn't good for the head.

The bottom line is that a truly good teacher wouldn't make silly restrictions that really have nothing to do with knowledge of the language. A good one would check if the expression is correct at all, rather than checking how similar it was to the expression that was written in the book.

Honestly, I think I'm not deserving of such a grade, since well, you guys know I understand English, right?


Thanks for posting and goodbye, everybody! I'm glad my post is finally finished. Now, as a more-or-less reward, I'll go watch Anime with my brother.