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ambiguous

on Academic Word List
4
Towards academic reading

Sometimes writers do not notice that their sentences are ambiguous and can be understood in two different ways.

For example:

Ali is an Egyptian fish biologist.

This sentence can have 2 different meanings:

1. Ali is an Egyptian, he is a biologist who studies fish.

2. Ali is a biologist who studies Egyptian fish.

However, writers sometimes choose to make their statements ambiguous.

Why would a writer decide to use an ambiguous statement instead of saying something openly and clearly? Choose the 3 correct answers.

to avoid hurting other people's feelings

to avoid getting into trouble

to emphasize what they really mean

to avoid angry responses from readers