You guys think this is a crappy question? You should see some of the exams Thais are given. One famous example from the 1990s went something like:
A. Hello.
B. Hi.
C. Goodbye.
D. How are you?
And when it was pointed out that more than one of those could be a valid answer, criticism was dismissed out of hand because it came from foreigners.
It’s A for me as well. From Philly, FWIW…
Yes, Reza, tell us about the context of this silly test.
Is it intended for native-English-speaking grade school children?
Or for ESL grade school children?
Or for ESL adults?
It’s really a stupid question on several levels. First, it’s not clear what the question is asking (it doesn’t actually say if it’s looking for the word with a different “u” sound). Second, it seems to be testing for a knowledge of some profoundly petty triviality. Third, it fails to consider that there is no perfectly “correct” accepted pronunciation.
Was this test made by the same geniuses who gave us “The Pineapple and the Hare” test?
This is my answer too.
Mine too.
It’s a horrible question. First off, those words are not pronounced the same way in different accents. Second, no matter what the accent, they all contain the same vowel, /u/. It’s just that, in some accents, it’s possible one or more words would add a /j/ sound in front of the /u/.
If I had to guess at the answer they wanted, I would say B use, since “use” will always have the /j/ sound in front of it. It still would be incorrect, however.
(And I think the context makes the sounds clear enough, even if you don’t know IPA.)
I think I may have broken the code. In certain British accents I can hear the following in my head:
A- rule - “Roo-ill”
B- use - “Yoo-iss” (as a noun)
C- chew - “Chew” (And that’s why it was supposedly the correct answer.)
D- juice - “Joo-iss”
I’m sure that’s the answer and the person writing the test was on a particular British dialect.
Double post.
And “*of *a particular British dialect.”
They all sound like the same vowel to me.
Rool
Yoos
Choo
Joos
I’d say B. To me it has a “you” sound and the others have an “ooh” sound.
Yes, this test is from exam paper, high school, second year, in a non-English speaking country.
Thanks everybody in the house for your answers. 