[Grammar] why B is correct, what about C

[cnjackie88]

- Where are the teachers now?
-In the meeting room. They _______the meeting for 10 minutes.
A have begun
B have been on
C have had
D have been held

why B is correct? What about C?

 

[probus]

C is not necessarily incorrect, but it is not the answer the author wanted because it is less natural. What do I mean by natural? The more likely a native speaker would be to choose something, the more natural we consider that choice to be.

This matter of "naturalness" is not peculiar to English. All languages have the concept as far as I know.

 

[Piscean]

[STRIKE]w[/STRIKE]Why is B [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] correct?

Note my corrections to your question.

 

[Tarheel]

A: Where are the teachers?
B: They're in the meeting room.
A: When will they be finished?
B: Any time now. The meeting is supposed to last about ten minutes, and it's been going on that long already.

Please note that we do not usually end questions with "now".

 

[Piscean]

Please note that we do not usually end questions with "now".

I'm sure I do. That question looks OK to me.

 

[Yankee]

"have been in​" (AmE)

 

[jutfrank]

The preposition on is wrong (in all varieties of English). It should say in, or possibly at, but not on.

They've been in the meeting for ten minutes.

 

[5jj]

"have been in​" (AmE)

and in BrE.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm sure I do. That question looks OK to me.

You usually end your questions with "now"? Really?

A: Where are the teachers now?
B: They're the same place they were ten minutes ago. Why do you want to know?

Either "now" means something or it doesn't.

 

[5jj]

You usually end your questions with "now"? Really?

Not usually, but I see no restriction if the word is appropriate.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm with Tarheel on the 'now' question, I think.

I suspect that the writer decided to include a very unnatural and unnecessary now purely as a way to help elicit that the meeting is ongoing. This is a very poor test question.

However, that doesn't mean that it's not completely appropriate to end any question with now, of course, Tarheel.

 

[5jj]

- Where are the teachers now?
-In the meeting room.

I simply don't see the objections to 'now'. In some wider contexts it might well not be necessary, but in some wider contexts it is perfectly natural.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm just trying to understand what Tarheel means. My own point is that there's an obvious difference between the following two sentences:

Where are the teachers?
Where are the teachers now?

Of course, a speaker must have a special reason to include now. There must be some kind of suggestion of contrast to a different time. If I understand Tarheel correctly, he's saying that the speaker doesn't have a reason to use now. I think that's right. I think the question writer didn't imagine a reason for the speaker to use it either. Of course, we can never know this.

It's a moot and uninteresting point anyway. The question is badly written and it isn't worth discussing the use of now.

 

[Tarheel]

However, that doesn't mean that it's not completely appropriate to end any question with now, of course, Tarheel.

I never said that. I said most questions don't end with now. (They don't.)

 

[5jj]

I never said that. I said most questions don't end with now. (They don't.)

You're right. Most questions don't end with now, or with then, hello, I, obfuscation or herpes.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

- Where are the teachers now?
-In the meeting room. They _______the meeting for 10 minutes.
A have begun
B have been on
C have had
D have been held

why B is correct? What about C?

None of the answers are correct. These are correct:

- They have been meeting for ten minutes.
- They have been in the meeting for ten minutes.

 

[probus]

None of the answers are correct.

Please tell us then what you would do if, like cnjackie, you were taking a multiple choice test in China with those four answers. Would you scrawl a note telling the examiners all of their choices were wrong?

 

[GoesStation]

Please tell us then what you would do if, like cnjackie, you were taking a multiple choice test in China with those four answers. Would you scrawl a note telling the examiners all of their choices were wrong?

I'd pick B as the least bad answer. I can imagine a native speaker using "on" for a Zoom meeting.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Please tell us then what you would do if, like cnjackie, you were taking a multiple choice test in China with those four answers. Would you scrawl a note telling the examiners all of their choices were wrong?

Or course not! I'd pick B. In multiple choice tests, you're not supposed to pick the right answer. Sometimes there isn't one. You're supposed to pick the best answer. B is the only one that's grammatical.

(And my answer wasn't grammatical, either! I should have said, None of the answers is correct.)

 

[GoesStation]

I should have said, None of the answers is correct.)

I'd use are. It's not ungrammatical. Zero is plural in English.