Sasha
Professional Teacher
Rafa has been playing tennis since the age of 15. True or False? Hello, everyone! I couldn't get the answer right. I had to say True or False about this sentence. "Rafa has been playing tennis since the age of 15" What would you say? What do I have to pay attention at to get this answer right? Thank you! "Everyone who meets him says the same thing: he is 'educado', as they say in Spanish. Not so much educated in the formal sense (Rafa left school when he turned professional at 15), but educated in manners and character. Rafa is polite and respectful to everyone he meets. Indeed, even though Rafa is one of the best players in tennis history, he is probably the most humble No. 1 the game has ever known." (from On Screen B2 by Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley)
Nov 14, 2018 6:39 PM
Answers · 8
2
Rafa has been playing tennis as a professional since 15. Rafa has been playing tennis since he was younger than 15. [He probably started playing at 10 or 12 and was very good by 15.] I would answer FALSE.
November 14, 2018
2
I would say "False." The key for me is "when he turned professional at 15." Which means that when he was 15, people paid him money to play tennis. It is highly unlikely that someone who had never played before would be offered money to play, so he must have started playing at a younger age.
November 14, 2018
Thank you, Gary! I am printing out this phrase right now on a big A4 paper to always see it and remember it!
November 15, 2018
Chris is quite right. But you 'pay attention to' something. So, as odd as it may look, you should have written '..pay attention to to...' That is a very tricky question. It is definitely a case of using lateral thinking, rather than English comprehension, and I think that many, if not most native speakers would also get it wrong.
November 15, 2018
Both "I couldn't get the answer right" and "I couldn't get the right answer" are grammatically correct and common in North American English. "I couldn't get the answer right" is similar to "I couldn't do the work right [in the right way]" and roughly means "I couldn't fully understand the problem, so I couldn't choose the best/right answer." "I couldn't get the right answer" means the same thing.
November 14, 2018
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