Question 10 of 24beginner🔧 ApplyVery Short1 mark

Go and have a bath; your hands and face are absolutely black. (Guess the meaning of the word 'black' in this sentence.)

Correct Answer

In this sentence, the word 'black' means covered with dirt or very dirty.

Exercise: Thinking about Language I | Q: 1 | (Page 9)
For More Understanding

Explanation

The textbook context explains that 'black' has a variety of meanings in different contexts. In the sentence 'Go and have a bath; your hands and face are absolutely black', the context of needing a bath and referring to hands and face indicates that the person is extremely dirty or covered in dirt, rather than literally being the colour black or meaning 'without light' or 'without hope' as in other contexts.

Solution Steps

  1. Step 1: Identify the context - someone is being told to have a bath because their hands and face are 'black'.

  2. Step 2: Relate bathing to cleaning dirt, so 'black' here refers to being covered in dirt/very dirty.

  3. Step 3: Distinguish from other meanings of 'black' given in the context (without milk, without hope, without light) which don't fit this sentence.