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I am confused in this sentence :

There are two scores of books (A) / which are lying (B) / unused in the library (C) / no error (D).

The answer is part (A) and error is mentioned as scores.

I am confused why scores is wrong here, like as we say, There are two sets of books in the library.

Can anyone explain why it's wrong? Is sets also wrong?

James K
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Sudhir Sharma
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  • Could you please clarify your question? The sentence with (A), (B), etc, is not very clear. Are they options, or are they blanks to be filled? – Dhanishtha Ghosh Oct 29 '21 at 06:25
  • The real "error" here is using the archaic/poetic phrase "two score(s)" to mean "exactly forty". To correct it you should say "There are forty books..." But this won't be the correction your teacher wants. In modern English you should use "score" as a precise number. The vague "scores of ..." is fine when you want to be approximate. – James K Oct 29 '21 at 06:49
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    There are two score books, not 'scores of'. For some reason score (20) and dozen (12) are unchanged in the plural when an exact number is given, though, as James says, we can refer to 'dozens of' and 'scores of' when we just mean 'a lot'. See this question – Kate Bunting Oct 29 '21 at 08:39
  • @KateBunting - hundred, thousand, million, trillion, etc are unchanged too when an exact number is given, but plural for inexact situations - five hundred people, hundreds of insects, one million dollars, millions of atoms. – Michael Harvey Oct 29 '21 at 08:52
  • @MichaelHarvey - You are right, of course. – Kate Bunting Oct 29 '21 at 08:59

1 Answers1

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I am guessing you mean which part of the sentence is incorrect, so that is what those alphabetic options represent.

score: Source

a large number of something.

"he sent scores of enthusiastic letters to friends"

It sounds wrong, and is wrong to assign a particular number before the word scores. If you want to say it your way, you need to reframe the sentence as:

There are scores of books which are lying unused in the library. (many number of books)

set: Source

  1. a group or collection of things that belong together or resemble one another or are usually found together.

    "a set of false teeth"

When saying sets of books, we determinedly mean there are only two distinct or repeated set of books that lie on the table.

There are two sets of books which are lying unused in the library. (only two sets of various books, no more, no less)

Dhanishtha Ghosh
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  • "It sounds wrong, and is wrong to assign a particular number before the word scores" - it is not wrong, though, to say "two score", although it is extremely old-fashioned. – stangdon Oct 29 '21 at 11:31