questions about adverbs

Re: questions about adverbs
It seems a rather hard question for a beginner, if that is what you are. If not, it is a perhaps a hint to do more reading!

In each question, the choice (a) is an old fashioned, rather literary word, whereas (b) is a more modern word more likely to be used in a business context. If you read plenty of English language newspapers, magazines and books you will get a feel for this kind of thing.

Neither "markedly" nor "lately" should be considered old fashioned or "literary" words...they are very common in English in the US. I don't know where contrex is from..

For instance, it is easy to construct sentences where you should pick A instead of B in both cases.

His aim was _____ good (use markedly not prominently)

I haven't seen Judy ____ (use lately not just)

Although their definitions of a and b are similar, there are very subtle differences between the words, that you would not be able to tell by just reading the definitions.

You just have to hear them used in context hundreds of times to figure it out!

Re: questions about adverbs


The difference between "markedly" and "prominently" is a subtle one indeed. In your sentence (b) is the better answer because "prominently" is more commonly used to refer to physical placement than "markedly" is. (Keep in mind that this does not mean "prominently" is only used in matters of physical placement.) In your example, the sentence is trying to emphasize the physical placement of the business name and logo on the poster.