Multiple choice

Read the two sentences given below: The lizard ate the fly. The fly ate the lizard. A teacher can use this example to explain that

  1. they are examples of reported speech

  2. they are a collection of words

  3. there is no difference in the two sentences because both have the same words

  4. when subject and object change positions, the meaning of the sentence changes
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The two sentences demonstrate how changing the position of subject and object completely alters meaning, even with identical words. 'The lizard ate the fly' shows lizard as predator, while 'The fly ate the lizard' (impossible in reality, but grammatically valid) shows the reverse. This illustrates that word order determines semantic roles. Options A and B are incorrect grammatical analyses, and C falsely claims there's no difference.

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