it has a red leaf in/on it// in/on the test paper

[brian&me]

Hi, everyone.

The following is from an English textbook for primary schools in China published by Hebei Education Press and DC Canada Education Publishing.

I wonder if the second sentence should be it has a red leaf in it.

Thanks.

 

[velisarius]

A flat object doesn't have an "inside", so there can be nothing "in it".

The leaf is on the surface, just as print is on the surface of a page. There's a picture on the page. There's a flag in the picture. There's a leaf on the flag.

Notice that "in the picture/photo" is the correct phrase - I guess that's because it's a representation of a 3-dimensional scene.

(Edited typo)

 

[brian&me]

Thanks, velisarius.
I wonder if I should say answer the questions on or in the test paper which is only one piece of paper.

Thanks again.

 

[se16teddy]

If you use in, a test paper is not a piece of paper: it is a piece of writing full of ideas and questions.

 

[brian&me]

Thanks, teddy.
I wonder if you mean that I should say answer the questions in the test paper.

 

[se16teddy]

I am not telling you whether you should think of a test paper as recycled wood or as words - hardware or software!

 

[brian&me]

Thanks, teddy.
I wonder if you mean that I could say both answer the questions on the test paper and answer the questions in the test paper. It depends on my ideas of the test.

 

[panjandrum]

Back to the flag.

Generally speaking, use "on" with the medium - canvas, wall, paper, flag, cloth ... ...
And use "in" with something like an image.
Do you say in or on the photo/postcard/picture/etc.?

 

[brian&me]

Thanks, panjandrum.

I've read the thread you recommended to me and I've learned a lot.

And would you please be kind enough to tell me if both answer the questions on the test paper and answer the questions in the test paper are correct.

 

[panjandrum]

THIS LINK will show you the relative frequency of the phrases.
It doesn't really answer your question though.
The trouble is, I don't think I would use either of the expressions you are asking about.
I might talk about "the test questions", or "the questions in the test", but I don't have any experience of talking about "questions in/on the test paper".
If you forced me to an answer, I would go for "questions on the test paper", but I'm not at all happy about that.