socially acceptable or accepted

[erroranalysis]

My students did the following exercise:

The second is that, unlike drugs, alcohol or grambling, shopping is socially __________________ (accept) and therefore easily available. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements persuading us to buy items [...].

Source: http://www.english-grammar.at/worksheets/language-in-use/word-formation/...

The word accept needs to be changed and the correct form has to be filled in.

What the key suggests and what I'd also use: acceptable

But some students wrote accepted. Would you say that that answer is also in order?

 

[Keith Bradford]

Yes, that's a perfectly good answer.

(It might be argued that 'accepted' is a better answer, because it is more objective. Saying that alcohol or gambling are not acceptable sounds to me like a Muslim or Methodist opinion which was perhaps not intended. Saying that they are not accepted is objective, although patently untrue.)

 

[DonnyB]

Personally, I would have used "accepted" there. I think it corresponds more closely to what I assume is the underlying message in the sentence, namely that it's become an established practice.

Against that, you have the fact that "socially acceptable" is a set phrase used to describe something which is generally considered to be a permissible thing to do.

So it depends on how you interpret the sentence, but I would accept both alternatives as correct.

 

[erroranalysis]

[...] but I would accept both alternatives as correct.

So will I. Thanks to both of you.