Learn English – which one is right answer

prepositions

They spent a lot of time _______ at the pictures in the museum.

  1. looking
  2. for looking
  3. to look
  4. to looking

I thought number 2, 3 is correct, but answer is number 3

what's the difference between spent a time for looking and spent a time to look?

Is number 2 totally wrong answer??

Best Answer

1, 2, and 3 are all correct but the meaning slightly changes.

  1. They spent a lot of time looking at the pictures in the museum.

This suggests the act of looking at the pictures is what they spent a lot of time on.

  1. They spent a lot of time for looking at the pictures in the museum.

This emphasises the spending of time, suggesting that you didn't expect looking at the pictures in the museum to take so long.

  1. They spent a lot of time to look at the pictures in the museum.

This could be read as meaning they spent a lot of time, perhaps before coming to the museum, in order to look at the pictures in the museum.

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