A small ____ of students was waiting outside the class to see the teacher.
A. crowd
B. gang
C. group
D. team

Note: I guess the answer is either A or C because “a gang” carries a negative connotation and “a team” is out to accomplish some particular goal/task. If I had to choose, I would say “a group student,” but when I think twice, it seems A is also acceptable. What’s the difference between “a group of students” and “a crowd of students” in this context? Which do you prefer and why? Thanks

Question

A small ____ of students was waiting outside the class to see the teacher.
A.	crowd
B.	gang
C.	group 
D.	team

Note: I guess the answer is either A or C because “a gang” carries a negative connotation and “a team” is out to accomplish some particular goal/task. If I had to choose, I would say “a group student,” but when I think twice, it seems A is also acceptable. What’s the difference between “a group of students” and “a crowd of students” in this context? Which do you prefer and why? Thanks

Answer

Group is the best answer; however, it is certainly possible to have a small crowd of students waiting outside of your door too. I have 35 students in each class and they do make up a small crowd when they're waiting for me to open the classroom door.

Answer

C would be the best choice here.  Technically they all "could" be right under certain circumstances.  for example: if the basketball team was waiting to see the teacher,etc.  But normal day to day use then C.  Another common word you would hear used here would be "number"

Answer

I believe that C is correct because crowd suggests a very large number of people. Because the statement specifically said "small", the correct answer would be group.

However, if the statement did not say "small", then either A or C would be correct.

Answer

A crowd is too large to be waiting outside a class to see a teacher.

Answer

There are some inconsistencies in definitions I’ve found. Wikipedia says a crowd is a small group of people, but Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Dictionary says that a crowd tends to be larger than a group.  
 
In the end, I think the differences between a group and a crow are:
1.	A crowd tends to be larger than a group.
2.	A group of people tend to know each other, whereas a crowd of people probably don’t.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Dictionary: http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/crowd_1

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd