TOEFL Structure Test Sample (Despite and Inspite of))

Identify the one underlined word or phrase that would not be accepted in standard written English.

- Despite of the pills which are available, many people still have trouble sleeping.

In the example of toefl test question above, the words Despite of is not accepted in written English English. The correct one is despite or inspite of . Therefore, the correct sentence is

Despite the pills which are available, many people still have trouble sleeping.

or

Inspite of the pills which are available, many people still have trouble sleeping.

Determiners: A, An or The?

The following topic is about the use of a, an or the quoted from englishclub.com. The use of a an and the is sometimes confusing. Therefore' the following explanation is expected to help you.
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When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about singular, countable nouns.)

The and a/an are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this:

Articles
Definite	Indefinite
the	a, an

We use "definite" to mean sure, certain. "Definite" is particular.

We use "indefinite" to mean not sure, not certain. "Indefinite" is general.

When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. When we are talking about one thing in general, we use a or an.

Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see 1 moon and millions of stars. So normally we would say:

• I saw the moon last night.
• I saw a star last night.

Look at these examples:

the	a, an
The capital of France is Paris. I have found the book that I lost. Have you cleaned the car? There are six eggs in the fridge. Please switch off the TV when you finish.	I was born in a town. John had an omelette for lunch. James Bond ordered a drink. We want to buy an umbrella. Have you got a pen?

Of course, often we can use the or a/an for the same word. It depends on the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

• We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.)
• Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

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source: www.englishclub.com

www.englishclub.com is a site which contains a complete description on English. This is is good for those who are learning English. If you want to learn English you can visit this site.