Much more

[catherine1999]

HI,everyone,I am a bit confused about this.

It will be bad for your health to eat ___ food and take ___
exercise.
A.much better B.more worse C.more better D.much worse

I tend to choose D,because I know the first blank "to eat much food" is common.But I don't really understand the second blank,what is "take worse exercise"?

Most people said the best choice should be B.They thought each verb to the blank as comparative degree. But I don't agree with B.Becuase I think "to eat more food" is abosolutely wrong.But I am not sure about this.Could some native friend give an advise?

 

[Meeracat]

The only phrase which fits the second blank is 'much better'. However, that does not seem to follow on from the first part of the sentence. I get the feeling that the whole excercise is teetering on the edge of not being good english

 

[catherine1999]

Thank you.Meeracat.Could someone else give more interpretion?thanks a lot.

 

[Lexiphile]

It will be bad for your health to eat ___ food and take ___
exercise.
A.much better B.more worse C.more better D.much worse

My reading of this is that in each of the four alternatives, the first word goes in the first blank and the second word goes in the second blank.

No one would ever say It will be bad for your health to eat much food , so that eliminates A and D.
The problem is that no one would ever say take worse exercise or take better exercise either. Logically, it must be B, since if "better exercise" can be used at all, it must be better for your health than "worse exercise."

But it is bad English. It should be less excercise, or no exercise, or insufficient exercise.

 

[catherine1999]

Lexiphile.Why people never say "It will be bad for your health to eat much food ".It seems to be ok meaningly.Because to eat too much will hurt your stomach.right?

If B,my question is,could the "more" modifies the uncountable noun "food"?

 

[Lexiphile]

You said it yourself, Catherine. You might eat too much food, but you wouldn't say you eat much food. You would say you eat a lot of food.

More can certainly modify a noncount noun. I have more water than you have. I also have more marbles than you have. More works with countable and noncountable nouns.

 

[panjandrum]

If it's any comfort, I think this question is dreadful.
None of the suggested answers produce a good, natural English sentence.
It is completely unreasonable.

Here is a fairly natural sentence that says what I think the topic sentence is trying to say.

It is bad for your health to eat too much food and take insufficient exercise.

That is a very long way from any of the possible answers to the original question.

 

[catherine1999]

Thanks you so much,panjandrum and Lexiphile.I learned more from your posts.