"Quid pro quo" is used to imply a misunderstanding, as in "to hear this rather than that", while "do ut des" has the meaning implied in the question.
I don't know how this got twisted so badly in (American?) English, but it's one of those cases where the current meaning doesn't fit the original one anymore.
How was I misspelling missile? Maybe "missle?" "Missel?" Those look obviously wrong to me now... but when I was taking the quiz I knew the answer for sure, tried several times but couldn't get it.
At least you were in the ballpark, Kalba. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't accepting "machines" until I finally looked more closely and realized it wasn't asking about IBM.
Everyone has words that just don't stick. I still have to think whether it's "withdrawal" or "withdrawl." No matter how many times I see that common word, it just never lands. And I'm otherwise an excellent speler.
There are more native English speakers in the United States than in the rest of the world combined.
At the time of the American Revolution, spelling had yet to be fully standardized. Webster did us Americans a huge favor with spellings that make a lot more sense, phonetically, than their British counterparts.
Language is a funny thing - removing superfluous letters to standardise spellings on one hand, but then adding unnecessary whole syllables to common words on the other: eg Transportation, Tunafish, Horseback...
And if letters are to be removed from spellings to reflect phonetic pronunciations, the American dictionary should remove the H from herb, the second A from caramel, the L from solder and the E from coupe :)
^and also, hate to break this to you, but the UK is not "everywhere else in the world." I've taught English on four continents now and always had students and employers (some that were British companies but forced to cater to their clients' demands) that preferred American spellings.
@EcceHomo Canada is a weird one for spelling. Sometimes we only accept the UK spelling, sometimes the American and sometimes we use both (this is the case with pajamas/pyjamas).
Why should we focus only on native English speakers? A billion people have learned English, and I don't think they shouldn't count because they spoke another language first.
Webster was a revolutionary who wanted nothing to do with Europe and went out of his way to mangle the English language. A lot. Around half of his "inventions" remain unused today.
Ok I'm American, and maybe you're joking around but I'm tired of everyone picking on us. The word "pajamas" (or "pyjamas," haha my computer spell-checks that word) comes from the Persian words "pay" meaning leg, and "jama" meaning garment or clothing. So I guess Brits took the y from "pay" and Americans took the a. If you think about it, everyone is right! Yay!
I quite like your British "peculiarities" too, even though I'm American. I have no problem with saying both ways are correct, (That only goes for spelling, though. When you try to tell me that North and South America are the same continent I lose all sense of diplomacy and go right to war.)
Took the quiz again after 2.5 years; not only was my first attempt today at the answer "correctly", but thought "I'm going to post 'please accept correctly as the answer'" in the comments. At least I'm unwavering :-)
A "pilot" is an episode of a series made as a produced sample episode of a show for evaluation prior to the decision by a network to commit to the production and airing of more episodes. Sometimes the pilot is the first episode of a series, but often it is not. Sometimes extensive changes are made to an episode before it is aired, and often the pilot episode is scrapped entirely. The pilot episode of "Star Trek," for example, had a much more military feel than the eventual show we are familiar with. It had a different doctor (not McCoy) and was never aired as part of the regular series run.
The first episode of a television series is commonly referred to as the "series premiere."
I agree, the question should be rephrased. Another example could be "Game of Thrones", where the "pilot episode" was never broadcasted and a complete reshot was done (with some changes in casting and script) for the first episode. And of course there are many shows with first episode and no "pilot".
And Star Trek shows how it can be even more complicated.The first pilot that you mention, "The Cage," wasn't actually picked up, so they made a second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." That one was picked up, but was aired as the third episode of the series. So Star Trek had TWO pilots, NEITHER of which were the first episode.
Snix is absolutely right. The pilot episode is not always the first episode. It's called a pilot episode in the same way it's called a "pilot project". It is NOT just a synonym for the first episode of a series. It's obvious what the answer is, but the definition provided is wrong.
Agree with snix - pilot refers to a pre-approval, "test episode" for a show, often very different from what the show becomes once approved for production. Premiere would be a better answer.
Star Trek (The Original Series) has several "pilots" due to the persistence of Gene Roddenberry in getting the series approved by the network and off the ground (pun intended). Most would call "The Cage" with Pike, Number One and Spock the true pilot. That episode was re-edited into the two-part episode "The Menagerie," but the original wasn't ever broadcast during the series' run. The original eventually became available to the home video market. I guess the "final" pilot appeared as the third episode because Roddenberry took some time to edit it - to assure continuity with what the series had become.
How DARE they declare James Bond (in my mind the one and only Sean Connery qualifies) as an Alcoholic??? - This series was set, when in the '40s and '50s? - In that era, he would not have been considered an alcoholic!!!! - (ever seen Madmen?) - We need to STOP putting our modern day values on past norms.
Wow! That's rather an overreaction. The question is clear that it was a medical journal who came to the conclusion, which suggests that it's a medical definition being applied rather than some societal thing.
But there were plenty alcoholics like them back then. They drank too much and were addicted because it was a norm; it is, by its nature, addictive. It just wasn't recognised as being a problem as long as one didn't collapse in the process and embarrass anyone. And when does a fictional hero do that?
Not sure why you've cited Mad Men given that Don Draper's alcohol abuse is a frequent theme of the show, it's not like the show is condoning how much he drinks.
This was from the Christmas Issue of the BMJ, which every year publishes light-hearted or satirical articles. It's not serious research, nor marketing... just some doctors at home ('in a comfy chair" they wrote) having some fun.
Technically 'pilot' is not the first episode of a series. A pilot is a 'proof of concept' for a proposed series. It's a single show made to demonstrate the concept of the series. If it becomes a series, the first episode is the 'premiere'.
Do we really ever see Sherlock Holmes drinking, though? He's addicted to cocaine, certainly, but I don't think we ever see him have any particular problem with alcohol.
Pajamas/pyjamas in NOT an English word invented by the people of England, but the English transposition of an Indian word which has a different alphabet. Therefore the English do not have a right to think they are the ultimate authority on how a word translated from another language is "supposed" to be spelled.
"Quid pro quo" is used to imply a misunderstanding, as in "to hear this rather than that", while "do ut des" has the meaning implied in the question.
I don't know how this got twisted so badly in (American?) English, but it's one of those cases where the current meaning doesn't fit the original one anymore.
At the time of the American Revolution, spelling had yet to be fully standardized. Webster did us Americans a huge favor with spellings that make a lot more sense, phonetically, than their British counterparts.
And if letters are to be removed from spellings to reflect phonetic pronunciations, the American dictionary should remove the H from herb, the second A from caramel, the L from solder and the E from coupe :)
Canada, however, uses both spellings, with the UK spelling perhaps slightly more common.
I quite like the peculiarities of British English, but we shouldn't pretend it's the only correct way.
The first episode of a television series is commonly referred to as the "series premiere."
The film series is ongoing anyway and it's also set in present time.
But there were plenty alcoholics like them back then. They drank too much and were addicted because it was a norm; it is, by its nature, addictive. It just wasn't recognised as being a problem as long as one didn't collapse in the process and embarrass anyone. And when does a fictional hero do that?
And who says pajamas. Never heard it in my life,