Other ANY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER OR ENGLISH MAYOR STUDENTS, PLEASE HELP

[AyreViere]

Alright, urgent help is needed here. I'm not a native English speaker, but I've learned English for most of my life. I'm very passionate about this, so what I'm about to ask here really ticked me off.

I'm currently taking courses to prepare for the TOEFL. But during today's class, there was a question that resulted in a debate between me and my teacher.

Here is the question:
Carnivorous plants...... Insects to obtain nitrogen.

Simple, right?

There are two out of four options that go like this:

A. Are generally trapped.
D. Generally trap.

My teacher insists that the answer is A. But I  knew  that the correct answer is D. A just didn't make sense in a whole lot of ways. But I knew my limit and, despite knowing that my answer is correct and that A is just grammatically incorrect in this context, I couldn't fully explain why A is wrong and D is right. I tried to give a full analysis, but my teacher is not convinced and told me to ask other teachers first and learn English again, which makes me so angry.

So, to any of you who is a native English speaker or have English as your major, please help. Please give me a full analysis of the correct answer and why the other answer is wrong. Thank you^^.

 

[.quietus]

Let's take a look at your teacher's 'sentence.'

Carnivorous plants are generally trapped insects to obtain nitrogen.

You can see at a glance that this literally doesn't make any sense, but sure, let's discuss the issue further.

The structure here is: subject (carnivorous plants) - linking verb (are) - subject complement (generally trapped insects) - nonfinite adverbial clause (to obtain nitrogen).

You can't use adverbial clauses like that, because they are used to give more information about verbs, not subject complements. Therefore, you need a verb in that sentence. That's why 'generally trap' is the correct answer.

 

[Daisie]

I'm not very fancy with terminology or anything lol. But the "are" in that sentence would imply a state of being for the carnivorous plant. "Are" means that something = something else, like a math problem.

Examples:
"Those people are weird." People = weird.
"The tires are $100.” Tires = $100
"Examples are tedious." Examples = tedious.

With your teacher adding in an "are", they're doing this:
"Carnivorous plants are generally trapped insects".
We'll make it simpler just so we can see it better.
"Plants are generally insects"
"Plants are insects"
Plants = insects??
That isn't correct. These plants are not insects. These plants TRAP insects.


And then the "to" that comes afterwards just makes the entire sentence fall apart, honestly. "Plants are insects to obtain nitrogen."
Just a bunch of gibberish, lol.

Dunno if this helps at all, I'm not the greatest at describing these things, but I do enjoy English.

 

[AyreViere]

Let's take a look at your teacher's 'sentence.'

Carnivorous plants are generally trapped insects to obtain nitrogen.

You can see at a glance that this literally doesn't make any sense, but sure, let's discuss the issue further.

The structure here is: subject (carnivorous plants) - linking verb (are) - subject complement (generally trapped insects) - nonfinite adverbial clause (to obtain nitrogen).

You can't use adverbial clauses like that, because they are used to give more information about verbs, not subject complements. Therefore, you need a verb in that sentence. That's why 'generally trap' is the correct answer.

I'm not very fancy with terminology or anything lol. But the "are" in that sentence would imply a state of being for the carnivorous plant. "Are" means that something = something else, like a math problem.

Examples:
"Those people are weird." People = weird.
"The tires are $100.” Tires = $100
"Examples are tedious." Examples = tedious.

With your teacher adding in an "are", they're doing this:
"Carnivorous plants are generally trapped insects".
We'll make it simpler just so we can see it better.
"Plants are generally insects"
"Plants are insects"
Plants = insects??
That isn't correct. These plants are not insects. These plants TRAP insects.


And then the "to" that comes afterwards just makes the entire sentence fall apart, honestly. "Plants are insects to obtain nitrogen."
Just a bunch of gibberish, lol.

Dunno if this helps at all, I'm not the greatest at describing these things, but I do enjoy English.

Thank you so much! I also agree with both of your reasonings here. I tried to explain it to my teacher last time, but it didn't get through. Hopefully, I can convince them today. Thank you ^^.

Oh by the way, why is it generally trap and not generally trapped? In case my teacher asked, I wouldn't know how to fully explain that either

 

[NeonFlow]

Oh by the way, why is it generally trap and not generally trapped? In case my teacher asked, I wouldn't know how to fully explain that

Its cause the carnivorous plants trap insects. The carnivorous plants are not being trapped themselves so the "generally trapped" part seems odd. Saying insects get trapped in certain plants could work i guess.

To me anyway, but I'm Australian don't take my word for it.

 

[AyreViere]

Well, yes. But, I mean, why is it:

Carnivorous plants generally trap insects.

and not:

Carnivorous plants generally trapped insects.

 

[Daisie]

Thank you so much! I also agree with both of your reasonings here. I tried to explain it to my teacher last time, but it didn't get through. Hopefully, I can convince them today. Thank you ^^.

Oh by the way, why is it generally trap and not generally trapped? In case my teacher asked, I wouldn't know how to fully explain that either

 Trap is a present-tense verb. So if you're wanting to say that something is currently happening (happening right now), you use the present-tense version of that verb.

"Trapped" is past-tense, which sort of implies it happened sometime before, and not now. It makes you sound like you're talking about a specific event that occurred.

Like you could say to a friend "that plant trapped that fly," because you're talking about a personal experience. It was an event that you witnessed, with a plant and a fly. However, if you're wanting to talk about general carnivorous plant behaviour, you would use "trap" because you're not restricting yourself to that one event that happened in the past. Instead, you're talking about all carnivorous plants, today.

 

[NeonFlow]

The second one to me anyway is wrong or being read in a past tense if it makes sense
Daisie beat me to it.

Second one is like a historian talking about extinct plants.
"These plants generally trapped insects... but after the war no insects are left to trap. Also the plants are dead"

 

[ArchieTheFel]

While plenty of other people have explained this far better than I have, I'm just going to reiterate that yes, D. is the correct answer. While I unfortunately didn't withhold the grammar knowledge to explain in depth why this is the case, "[c]arnivorous plants are generally trapped insects to obtain nitrogen" is just...wrong. It would make sense if there was more information between the "trapped" and "insects," or even if the "are" was removed. But since these aren't applicable, D. is the correct answer. It makes perfect sense. Also, I need to get better at explaining grammar concepts in-depth. I hate knowing things intrinsically, but not being able to articulate what the hell I actually mean.

Edit: Oh well, I'm late to the party anyhow. Now I just want to hear how it went!

 

[AyreViere]

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me here! Your answers help me learn English better. I really appreciate that . Thank you!!

But, ah, now I have another question! I just came back from another study session for TOEFL and I just can't wrap my head around this particular question because of how vague it is.

The athletes .... their best performances, showcasing their talents and determination.
A. Are performing
B. Perform
C. Performed
D. Has performed

This type of question really screwed me over because I feel like all the options are correct! The question itself lacks detail on when the event happened, whether it was in the present or the past...

My teacher's answer is A, saying that that's how it should be because of the 'formula'. She also said that it has to be present continuous tense because the athletes are already preparing themselves for this event, which, I think, didn't make sense at all. I'm not saying that using the present continuous tense didn't make sense. I feel like all the options are correct. That's why I wanted to know why my teacher thought that A is the most correct answer here. But I couldn't get a satisfactory answer even after going back and forth, which lead me back here.

So, could you guys help me again?? Which option is, in your opinion, the most correct answer here and why?

 

[Daisie]

Oh boy, lol. You're right. That is a majorly confusing problem.

For one, my inner writer is screaming, because while it's not breaking any grammatical RULES, it agonizes me to see "perform" twice in the same sentence. It's the type of redundancy I have to really avoid. Pet peeve, sorry XD

It would totally depend on the context surrounding the sentence.

"The athletes are performing their best performances"
This implies that there is an active event going on right now. A sports narrator would probably say this.

"The athletes perform their best performances"
This would work well in a book, or storytelling context. Eg "When the athletes approach their starting points, they perform their best performances." This would work fine imo.

"The athletes performed their best performances."
All this really does is change the tense. So this would imply something was done in the past. It would also work fine.

"The athletes has performed their best performances."
This is the only one I can see is incorrect, by account of the "has" being singular. Since there are multiple athletes, it should be "have".

There are 3 correct answers and 1 incorrect answer. I think your teacher is a little cracked, lol.