Here is the text in question for your convenient reading:
“[ . . . ] we see is constantly changing in shape as we move about the room; so that here again the senses seem not to give us the truth about the table itself, but only about the appearance of the table.
Similar difficulties arise when we consider the sense of touch. It is true that the the table always gives us a sensation of hardness, and we feel that it resists pressure. But the sensation we obtain depends upon how hard we press the table and also upon what part of the body we press with; thus the various sensations due to various pressures or various parts of the body cannot be supposed to reveal directly any definite property of the table, but at most to be signs of some property which perhaps causes all the sensations, but is not actually apparent in any of them. And the same applies still more obviously to the sounds which can be elicted by rapping the table.
Thus it becomes evident that the real table, if there is one, is not the same as what we immediately experience by sight or touch or hearing. The real table, if there is one, is not
immediately known to us at all, but must be an inference from what is immediately known. Hence, two very difficult questions at once arise; namely, (1) Is there a real table at all? 2) If so, what sort of object can it be? It will help us in considering these questions to have a few simple terms of which the meaning is definite and clear. Let us give the name of ‘sense-data’ to the things that are immediately known in sensation: such things as colours, sounds, smells, hardnesses, roughnesses, and so on. We shall give the name ‘sensation’ to the experience of being immediately aware of these things.”
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The Errors (underlined in the text):
- The word “the” is repeated in the same sentence twice in a row (lines 4 and 5)
- The 2nd verb is misspelled ~ “elicited” is its correct version (1st full paragraph, last line)
- Question options (1) and (2) are incorporated into the text, out of which either one would be correct. In other words, there is inconsistency in this formulation (3rd full paragraph, lines 4 and 5)
- The line that starts with “It will help us [. . .]” should appear in a new paragraph; hence, there is an error in “transitioning” (2nd full paragraph, line 5)
- The U.S. spelling of the word “color” appears in the text in its U.K. & Australian English version, “colours” (3rd full paragraph, line 9)
- While this matter does not constitute an error (hence, not underlined as one), the phrases, “hardnesses” and “rougnesses” seem unnatural in U.S. English (2nd full paragraph, 2nd to last line). Whenever there is an alternative phrasing, such word use is best to avoid – unless, we are talking about “poetic license”.
Next week: More opportunities to practice proofreading
