Learn English – Involved to or Involved in

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Read this context:

Reading all of your speech from a note may give you confidence and ensure that nothing is forgotten or omitted, however it is the least interesting option for delivering your speech. you will find it more difficult to see your audience, and make it harder for them to get …….. to you.

In this context we want to fill the blank with one of this words:

a. prevented b. puzzled c. distracted d. involved

In the book in which I found this test, the answer is "d. involved". Isn't the preposition of involved "in/with"? Now, why the answer is involved "to"? I thought it the answer is distracted to but it also has not a appropriate meaning in this context.

Best Answer

If that is the actual quote (as you say) then first sentence is already not idiomatic English. It should be:

Reading your whole speech from your notes ...

"All of your speech" makes sense, but I just don't feel it's natural in this context. Also, for something like a speech or lecture, we write notes, plural, and read back from those notes. A "note" is something short, written for a particular purpose or to a particular person (or group).

None of the answer choices is really correct. The verb "involve" takes the prepositions "in" or "with".

I didn't want to get involved with them -- they're too radical for me.

I wanted to get more involved in my wife's family business, but her father wouldn't allow it.

"Involved to" is not idiomatic. Also, it's not really idiomatic to say the audience gets involved in a speaker. They can get involved in something like a speech or a movie, but not in a person (although you can get involved in someone's life).

Instead, in this context I would use a verb like "connect", or "relate".

Reading entirely from your notes is the least interesting way to deliver a speech. When you do this, you will find it more difficult to engage with your audience, and they will find it more difficult to relate to what you are saying.

I recommend finding a different book, preferably one written by native speakers.