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While studying English I came across the following exercise:

Complete the sentences. Choose the correct or more natural verb.

"Scientists ______ the loss of communication with the satellite to be the result of computing problems."

The two options are:

  • believe
  • explain

I thought that the answer would be explain, but in fact the correct answer is believe.

Can someone explain me why? Is it more natural?

Xaphanius
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  • Do the scientists know why the satellite lost communication? If they don't know the reason, they can't explain what that reason is. They believe (think) it was computing problems. – mcalex Aug 26 '21 at 07:40
  • @mcalex: Not to get too metaphysical, but that raises very real questions about what constitutes knowledge versus belief. Any scientist worth their salt would surely say that they cannot really know anything: all they have are a set of beliefs in which they do not (yet) see any contradiction. – eggyal Aug 26 '21 at 07:48
  • @eggyal philosophically/scientifically speaking (and without additional qualifications): agreed. In context (ELL): nope. If nothing is known, or it's impossible to know things (in any context), then the word 'knowledge' would literally be defined as: a false belief in a comprehensive, definitive understanding of a thing, or similar. – mcalex Aug 26 '21 at 08:22
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    Syntactically, it's usually They believe* it to be [something], and They explain it as being [something]*. – FumbleFingers Aug 26 '21 at 12:36
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    @mcalex: You are missing the point. Scientists are often in a position to explain things. The point is that the 'explain' is ungrammatical in this sentence. – TonyK Aug 26 '21 at 18:18
  • @TonyK Not missing the point, helping to supplement the thought process when answering these sort of exercises. Yes there's a minor grammatical error in this case, but it also helps - always - to give consideration to context. Sentences don't just have to be grammatically correct, they also have to make sense. – mcalex Aug 27 '21 at 06:01

1 Answers1

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"Believe __ to be" is an idiomatic construction. If the sentence were recast using "explain," then the construction "explain ___ as" would be the best choice: "Scientists explain the loss of communication with the satellite as the result of computing problems."

Andy Bonner
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  • Ye, though that should really be ""Scientists explain the loss of communication with the satellite as (being) the result of computing problems."" – Robbie Goodwin Aug 25 '21 at 21:09
  • See https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/295944/can-we-use-adjectives-and-leave-out-the-being – Andy Bonner Aug 26 '21 at 02:45
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    Or "Scientists explain that the loss of communication with the satellite is the result of computing problems." – Stef Aug 26 '21 at 13:22
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    @Stef I considered that, but mentioned "explain ... as" as being the closest in voice. Of course one could also say "They believe that it is." But all these are moot since the OP didn't have the option of altering the exercise sentence. – Andy Bonner Aug 26 '21 at 13:35
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    I think they're not moot - the point of the exercise is that "believe" can be used without altering the sentence, whereas a proper grammar construction using "explain" needs different connecting words in the sentence. – Stef Aug 26 '21 at 13:40
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    Sorry, I think we're misunderstanding each other. I think we've both made the point "If the answer were 'explain,' additional words would be needed." – Andy Bonner Aug 26 '21 at 13:48
  • Could also use "was" instead of "as" – Kevin Aug 26 '21 at 18:57