Two usage problems

Two usage problems

by Thomas Tremblay

​Aggravate/annoy

​Aggravate means to make something worse, 

and irritate is to annoy.

​

... Despite four hundred years of English speakers using aggravate to mean annoy or irritate, there is a shade of difference. If you make something worse, you aggravate the situation. A bedbug will irritate your skin.

Multiple Choice

She aggravated/annoyed an old foot injury.

• aggravated

• annoyed

Multiple Choice

People who chew with their mouths open really aggravate/annoy me.

• aggravate

• annoy

Multiple Choice

After assigning a two-chapter quiz, Mr. Tremblay aggravated/annoyed me by following it up with a twelve-chapter assessment.

• aggravated

• annoyed

Multiple Choice

I'm going to be playing a sonata so that I can aggravate/annoy my little sister.

• aggravate

• annoy

​Bunch versus group.

​group is a number of things or persons being in some relation to one another

​

 while bunch is a group of a number of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.

Multiple Choice

A bunch/group of students formed their study crew.

• bunch

• group

Multiple Choice

At Shop-Rite, she bought a gallon of milk and a small group/bunch of bananas.

• group

• bunch

Multiple Choice

There is a bunch/group of houses behind the hill.

• bunch

• group

Multiple Choice

That afternoon, Sam picked a bunch/group of flowers.

• bunch

• group

Multiple Choice

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield calls his fellow students a bunch/group of morons. 

• bunch

• group

Multiple Choice

"He hated it when you called him a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron." --Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye.

What is wrong with the second sentence?

• the first  use of "morons" should be "moron."

• the second "moron" should be "morons" instead of "a moron."

• it is preferable to say "when they are called morons."