Learner recognises nouns that appear neutral but habitually introduce negative content, and uses them consistently with the argument.
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The last three sprints were about verbs and intensifiers. The same thing happens to ordinary nouns.
The decade saw a spate of important scientific breakthroughs.
Grammar: fine. Spate is a countable noun taking of and a plural. Meaning: a number of things happening close together, which is what the sentence means.
And it is wrong, in exactly the way he committed a generous act was wrong.
A spate of what? Answer that from memory, without looking anything up, and you will already have the sprint.
Twenty-four completions, three nouns, one box for the leftovers. Same instruction as always: sort first.
Sort each item into the correct category
Four of these are reliable. Two are not, and the two that are not are where the marks are.
All four are as constrained as last sprint's verbs, and the check is the same: look at what you are about to put inside the noun.
Four nouns drawn as what they behave like — including the one that holds good and bad at the same time.
Three of these tell you what is inside before you look. The fourth does not, and that is the one to be careful with.
Eight nouns, eight completions. Two of the completions belong to nothing on the list — decide which.
Terms
Definitions
Three chains. The last one is the sprint — a noun that will not carry your judgement unless you put it there.
Chain 1
The sentence to complete: The county recorded a ______ of eleven arson attacks in a single fortnight.
Candidates: series / spate
Step 1 — Are the events unwelcome, and are they sudden and clustered?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The county recorded a of eleven arson attacks in a fortnight.
Chain 2
The sentence to complete: The decade produced a ______ of important scientific breakthroughs.
Candidates: series / spate
Step 1 — What is the polarity of the content, and what does that rule out?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The decade produced a of important scientific breakthroughs.
Chain 3
You want to criticise a regeneration programme. You write: The programme left a legacy. You reread it and it does not criticise anything.
Step 1 — Why does the noun fail to carry the criticism?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: The programme left a legacy of .