Answers and explanations
- Holding me accountable for To hold somebody accountable for something is to make them responsible for it. It is chiefly used in the negative meaning, e.g. somebody making a mistake and having to answer for it. ‘To make somebody accountable’ is not a collocation and should not be given as the answer.
- Did not do much good ‘Hardly improved’ in this context means that the improvement wasn’t very big or noticeable. Therefore, we need to use ‘much’ achieve the same effect. Omitting the word ‘good’ changes the meaning considerably – it means that almost no effect was made, neither positive nor negative.
- Do not feel like swimming To feel reluctant or unwilling to do something. Note the gerund form in this phrase.
- Pull out of this A more informal phrasal verbs, ‘to pull out of something’ is used figuratively to mean to stop being a part of something like a business deal or a project.
- My mind you should not The phrase ‘to my mind’ is a common way to paraphrase ‘in my opinion’, ‘I think’ or ‘I believe’. An important point – you can use both ‘should not’ and ‘shouldn’t’, however both would count as two words. In your exam paper, I would advise using the full form.
- Was not nearly as bad A comparative structure ‘as … as …’ is used instead of the original ‘much better than’. The negative form here is dictated by ‘nearly’, as it is only used in the negative in a structure like this one.
- Are required to attend We use a straightforward active to passive voice transformation. Make sure to keep the tense consistent with the original sentence.
- Is/exists a belief that Remember that ‘belief’ is the noun, whereas ‘believe’ is the verb form – an easy mistake to make that could ruin the transformation.
- Came across some old friends A phrasal verb ‘to come across’ means to meet somebody, especially if that was not planned or intentional.
- Order to catch the bus Keep in mind the five word limit in the gap – that is why ‘in order not to miss the bus’ is wrong – it goes over the limit.
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