We are often asked for the choice between two. All of this digital world is based on it, after all. It is probably easier for most people to handle the “positive” choice between two, sort of like you’d expect with an HTML input type=checkbox scenario, and we’ve got to say, we’d prefer that approach. However, there are many approaches with presenting the choices, especially if it is a choice between two awful prospects, when we tend to want to reject the worst one. This “double negative” type of scenario is very common, and polls can get vastly different results if the question allows this ambiguity, as it probably asks most users to sit back and think about the question, and then perhaps question their “gut” instincts.
Today we present an ESL Tutorial reworded from that one that is presented in the book “How English Works” by Michael Swan and Catherine Walter, talking about how future events can sometimes be described using Present tense verb structures, in preference to Future tense verbs.
The first link in this HTML/Javascript/CSS web application (the programming source code) we have called strike_choice_of_two.html (with a live run) takes you to some great quotes from the book, to explain the issue.
Today’s work turns HTML a tags into button looking features, and the crossing of the words, to indicate that you “click to reject”, is achieved by the HTML strike element. To counteract the “double negative” feel, we clarify a more straightforward explanation as you hover over these HTML a tag “buttons”, but, of course, this doesn’t work for most mobile platforms, unfortunately.
So see what you think of this idea here with today’s ESL sentence game about the future … and beyond!
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