не вижу ошибку!!

[Anna22]

Люди добрые!
Пишу контрольную, в задании сказано: "Содержится одна ошибка"
В упор ее не вижу, маюсь вторые сутки.
Помогите, кто может.

"Is John ill? He's lost a lot of weight."
"Yes, he is rather slender these days, isn't he?"

В предыдущем, для сравнения, был такой текст:
"Why didn't you answer the phone?"
"Because I had a bath" где я исправила на "I was having a bath"

Не оставьте, жду!

[Althea]

Has John been ill? He's lost a lot of weight.

(Is John ill? - means he still looks poorly AND lost weight. If he looks well and slimmed down, then Present Perfect)

[Anna22]

Dear Althea!

Thank you!!!

[***]

Вам неправильно подсказали. Попробуйте найти ответ через Гугл.

[Althea]

It's not grammar, is it? :-)

[Anna22]

***,
Не могли бы объяснить, почему неправильно?

[Althea]

It's vocabulary, darling - meaning & usage of the adjective in the second sentence. Will require slight changes.

See google

Google search basics
www.google.com or www.google.co.uk
Copy the second sentence including quotation marks. Paste into the search window. Hit search button. See Spot run. :-)

[kintorov]

"Is John ill? He's lost a lot of weight."
"Yes, he is rather slender these days, isn't he?"

По-моему, с первым предложением все нормально, (Is John ill? (Джон болен?) Я бы не ставил в перфект, потому что второе предложение показывает результат, а обратил внимание на второе предложение, в котором есть "these days", поэтому сюда я бы и поставил перфект: Yes, he has been rather slader these days, hasn't he? (Если цепляться грамматически, то оно должно выглядеть так: Yes, he is. He has been rather slader these days, hasn't he? (краткий ответ на вопрос, после которого идет констатация факта и после которого я бы постаил точку или точку с запятой). IMHO

[Althea]

Kintorov
Try google, please. It helps (in this particular case). Really.

[denghu]

slim: gracefully and attractively thin
Джон приболел, потерял в весе, постройнел (похорошел)... Ерунда какая-то.

У Вас задания исключительно на грамматику, или на лексику тоже? Слово slender по коннотации вообще не подходит к теме "болезнь".

Возможно, здесь вопрос касается возможности употребления времени Present Continuous. Его часто употребляют с выражением these days для выражения актуальности и временности действия, но с глаголом to be очень редко.

My copy is bound with Dead Letters (including Goneril to Regan on how very tiresome Papa is being these days) and Lost Diaries, ...

http://www.ansible.co.uk/cc/cc90.html

Контрпример:

Mark is less angry these days, definitely more calm.

http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/cxl/fall/fallnet/interview_7

А еще вопрос: кто составлял тест известно?

[denghu]

slender=slim

[denghu]

Да, забыл написать, что сочетание to be + прилаг. употребляется во временах Continuous только со значением "вести себя"

т.е. можно сказать
John is being tiresome/pushy/loud/provocative these days.

А вот, например, со slender или thin уже нельзя, это состояние/характеристика, а не поведение.
Значит, вариант с Present Continuous отпадает.

[kintorov]

"Kintorov
Try google, please. It helps (in this particular case). Really.

Althea, What helps? Google? It has not helped you, hasn't it?"

1. The first sensence, "Is John ill?", is correct.
2. I think the second sentence, "He's lost a lot of weight", needs changing for clarity, "He HAS lost a lot of weight."
3. In relation to the third sentence, I don't know as it looks correct, but grammatically, probably, present perfect or present perfect progressive would do. (Some common words and expressions used with the present perfect progressive tense are recently, lately, these days, which indicate that the action started a short time ago and has continued to the present time. It implies that the action or event is fairly new or recent.)

[Althea]

Kintorov
There is your answer
http://www.udel.edu/eli/questions/g05b.html

If you can't be bothered to read through the lot

Q. (from Moose) I was told that there was a mistake in the following exchange, and I cannot find it! Please help! Here it is:

"Is John ill? He's lost a lot of weight." "Yes, he is rather slender these days, isn't he?

A. Moose, the mistake isn't actually in grammar but involves vocabulary. First of all, "slender" is used to describe a person's characteristic physical appearance due to genes, not his or her momentary physical appearance due to certain circumstances. Thus, "thin" should be used instead. Also, "is" is used to convey a fact, such as a person's characteristic physical appearance. Therefore, since that is not the point of the interchange, "looks," which is used to express impressions based on appearance, should be used, whereby the tag question needs to be changed to "doesn't he?"

The resulting response would then be "Yes, he looks rather thin these days, doesn't he?"
------
This is a CELTA/TESL/TEFL Test - get over it.

In this case the examiners were after specific WORD USAGE, not grammar

FYI - either sentence Is John ill or Has John been ill - is grammatically correct and the use of Present Indefinite or Present Perfect is largely context-specific

Your suggestions are wrong.

[kintorov]

Althea,
Maybe... but I'm not sure anyway.