When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People 27. liable. It emphasizes that the speaker thinks the outcome would be bad; “likely” may also be used to express a simple probability. 28. apt. It emphasizes that the speaker thinks the outcome would be unpleasant, as well as something that a mad scientist might do out of his or her very nature. “Likely” may also be used to express a simple probability. 29. likely. It is the best choice here; the outcome isn’t something unpleasant (which would make “liable” appropriate), and it’s not something that Doreen’s very nature makes her likely to do (which would make “apt” an appropriate choice). 30. percentage. 31. percent. 32. quotations. 33. each Tuesday and Thursday. 34. March 15. 35. each spring and fall. 36. serve. 37. service. 38. take. 39. bring, brought. 40. use. 41. using, utilize, used. Some very conservative speakers believe that “utilizes” is always pretentious and unnecessary. Others believe “utilizes” can express the idea of using sophisticated or rare resources in the best possible way. Here, the sentence distinguishes between “using” resources badly (using index cards to keep track of complex data, using a computer as a coat rack) and” utilizing” resources particularly well or efficiently (utilizing an expensive computer to track data).
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