Commonly Confused Words Test

[mbarker]

Kind of fun (that means I scored well, doesn't it?). Anyway, you can try it at http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-commonly-confused-words-test

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test ...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 87% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

I'm not convinced that 40 questions doth a genius make, but it was fun. And spotting my error in the Expert answers interesting. I'm not sure that I agree that farther is for physical measures, while further is for metaphorical usage, but . . .

Comments

I don't get it...

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

Oops, I used that "get" word. Sorry. Let me start again. I don't understand how this can be - I did the HelloQuizzy test & I don't see how can you score 93% in Beginner & 100% in both Intermediate and Advanced? Weird. I didn't even cheat. Was fun though, I actually had to think for some of them. As for 'farther/further', I whipped out Bill Bryson's "Troublesome Words" (ISBN 9780141001357) and he murmurs (sorry, couldn't help myself) "Insofar as the two are distinguished, farther usually appears in contexts involving literal distance ('New York is farther from Sydney than from London') and further in contexts involving figurative distance ('I can take this no further'). But there is, as the OED notes, a large intermediate class of instances in which the choice between the two forms is arbitrary."
Hope this improves your day :-)

Re: I don't get it...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The answer key explains that each question is assigned to one category, so missing one question in Beginner knocks something off there, even if you do perfectly at "higher" categories. Probably shouldn't have used an ordered set of categories, but . . .

I do think that these fine points of word usage tend to be more grey and less black-and-white than people pretend in such tests and guidance. Fun to play, but not all that serious.

Thanks!