adverbsword-choice
I was doing an English test, and it appeared the question below. The question was stated exactly the way it is presented and there is no context, just the question:
Complete with the correct form:
How ___ does it take from your house to work?
A) Far
B) Long
C) Often
D) Many
I am in doubt between how far and how long. Without a context it is complicated to answer. I would like to know from you guys, what do you think or what expression is more used?
This is sense 10 in Collins:
just; merely; only ⇒ "he was but a child", "I can but try"
Here, the sentence means "it will only take a moment". In other words, it won't take more than one moment.
Yes, your answer is correct as well. To get a feeling for how often certain phrases are used, you can use the Google Ngram Viewer:
Of course, this doesn't tell you that the phrases have the same meaning; for that, you can click on the links below the graph which show a few samples where the phrase is used, with the same meaning as your exercise.
Best Answer
"How far does it take..." does not sound right. The answer is "long" regardless of any context here.
"How far do you have to travel to get to work?" Would be the way to ask the question if distance was the focus.
Edit: Something not sounding right isn't enough of a reason so here's another way to think about this. Things "take" time, not distance.
Correct.
Incorrect.