Hi,
This is from a selective cloze exercise, which aims to test semantic precision:
"I was _________ in a village and even though I've now worked in the city for many years ... "
I can choose among four possible answers:
A) reared
B) raised
C) nurtured
D) bred.
I thought both A and B could be correct, which is against the rule of the "game", because only one answer is supposed to be fine.* [:^)]
The only explanation I was able to find here in the forums is this one :
raise: to take care of a person, or an animal or plant, until they are completely grown
rear: to care for young animals or children until they are able to care for themselves
and these one from Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary :
raise: (especially NAmE) to care for a child or young animal until it is able to take care of itself:
rear: [often passive] to care for young children or animals until they are fully grown
To sum things up, according to Cambridge dic. there would be no difference between "rear" and "raise" (within this context), while Oxford dic. suggests two reasons for choosing one over the other: active/passive form and BrE/AmE. None of them mentions that one should be used for animals and the other for children.
Sorry for the long introduction ... now I'll ask my question.
Do you native speakers feel there's any difference between rear and raise? I'm interested in all of the three explanations above given (active/passive, British/American, children/animals).
Thank you!
____
*Just for the records, although I don't have the keys yet, I think they expect me to choose "A" ("reared"). However, I'm not merely interested in passing tests; I'd rather know how native speakers use these two words ... If I were to say or write that sentence, I think I'd use "raised" because it seems more natural to me ... but maybe my non-native ear is just failing me!
This is from a selective cloze exercise, which aims to test semantic precision:
"I was _________ in a village and even though I've now worked in the city for many years ... "
I can choose among four possible answers:
A) reared
B) raised
C) nurtured
D) bred.
I thought both A and B could be correct, which is against the rule of the "game", because only one answer is supposed to be fine.* [:^)]
The only explanation I was able to find here in the forums is this one :
These definitions are from Cambridge online dictionaries :
I was taught (egads, 40 years ago) that "you raise animals, you rear children", by a very precise English teacher. However, I have been trying to locate current practice on the use of rear/raise, and it appears that rear has become almost obsolete.
raise: to take care of a person, or an animal or plant, until they are completely grown
rear: to care for young animals or children until they are able to care for themselves
and these one from Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary :
raise: (especially NAmE) to care for a child or young animal until it is able to take care of itself:
rear: [often passive] to care for young children or animals until they are fully grown
To sum things up, according to Cambridge dic. there would be no difference between "rear" and "raise" (within this context), while Oxford dic. suggests two reasons for choosing one over the other: active/passive form and BrE/AmE. None of them mentions that one should be used for animals and the other for children.
Sorry for the long introduction ... now I'll ask my question.
Do you native speakers feel there's any difference between rear and raise? I'm interested in all of the three explanations above given (active/passive, British/American, children/animals).
Thank you!
____
*Just for the records, although I don't have the keys yet, I think they expect me to choose "A" ("reared"). However, I'm not merely interested in passing tests; I'd rather know how native speakers use these two words ... If I were to say or write that sentence, I think I'd use "raised" because it seems more natural to me ... but maybe my non-native ear is just failing me!
Comments
I wouldn't really distingush between 'raised' and 'reared' here.
I also don't have any problem with 'nurtured'. This simply adds colour to the sentence, by stressing 'raised/reared with kindness, understanding, care'. However, I'm sure that 'nurtured' would not be what the examiner is looking for.
Best wishes, Clive
I have now been given the "correct" answer. Quite surprisingly (well, for me!) they said "raised" is correct and "reared" is wrong. The explanation was, as a child you are reared by somebody but raised in a certain place.
Any thoughts about this one?
(No problem, anyway, that was only a mock test. In real life, I think I'll stick with "raise", as Philip suggested
After checking my dictionaries (as you did, Tanit), I came to the conclusion there was basically no difference, at least in that context. My first guess was that "rear" was just much less common, and higher in register (and it looks like I guessed right). That seems a sensible explanation if you really take them as idiomatic collocations. The problem is it doesn't really seem to reflect how people use and perceive those words. The New York Times seems full of people reared "somewhere", for example.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/fi/FitzgEl.html - Columbia Encyclopedia
[...] Fitzgerald was reared in Yonkers, N.Y., moving after her mother’s death (1932) to Harlem [...]
http://www.bartleby.com/65/va/VanBuren.html - Columbia Encyclopedia
[...] He was reared on his father’s farm, was educated at local schools [...]
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="was+reared+in"%3Awww.nytimes.com&btnG=Search
Lots of articles
It really scares me to realize how weird some questions can be, and how weird the answers can be as well. No wonder the average American scores so poorly on tests like the TOEFL.
As I trust our natives friends, I posted that explanation to check with them whether it makes sense or not to them. Do you think I love them?
The thing is, after completing something else, I thought it was highly time I got back to studying English more seriously than I've done in the recent past and to sit for this certificate (not the TOEFL) I should have taken a couple of years ago. Tests are the only standardized way to assess one's knowledge of the language; unfortunately, though, they are prepared by humans ...
(PS: thanks for the links!)
An excerpt from http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html
just to confuse things, both are used.