Hi everyone! Can I ask why Question 2 is C and not D?

The reviewer says "I think I'm the exception", meaning this person felt like the odd one out in his opinions on the restaurant in contrast to the other guests who thought "the food was fabulous". D does not fit. The reviewer D makes no comparisons of his experiences to other guests.

C say “I think I am an exception”, therefore they acknowledge that their experience probably wasn‘t the norm. D doesn’t say anything comparing their experience to others

The biggest indicator is that Person C ends with “I think I’m an exception” as in “this was my experience, but it doesn’t seem to be the same experience that others have had”. They also think the atmosphere might have been off because of an argument, which is something that could be temporary. Person D objected to things like the decor and the menu, which are more likely to be long-term fixtures of the restaurant.

I can see why OP is confused: having such a terrible experience in a highly rated restaurant could be considered “unusual” from a certain angle. But the author of the review doesn’t think it is “unusual”; he thinks an inherently terrible restaurant, which is probably always bad. Reviewer C also had a flawed experience, but explicitly concluded that it was due to exceptional (“unusual”) circumstances.

C says in the post that “many people say the food here is fabulous. So, I think I’m an exception.” That points at many saying it’s a good place, and the person writing says they think their experience is not what most will be. D saying “confused and strange” is talking about the traditional menu items with a modern decoration. Traditional food usually has a traditional decoration. Think about if you were to walk into a Mexican food restaurant with traditional Mexican style decoration vs one with modern sleek lines; which one would you think would have more authentic food?

C thinks his feeling is an exception, which suggests that most people might not agree with his opinion. From his point of view, his experience is considered unusual for other people, whereas D just talks about bad experiences at the restaurant.

Both of these are very poorly written.

"Unusual" is a word with a mostly neutral connotation. It can be bad but often just means unexpected or out of the ordinary. Adding the phrase "probably" gives a sense of uncertainty. C has a feeling of indifference or ambiguity. "Nothing to write about" means they didn't think it was good, but they won't commit to saying its bad either.  That aligns with the neutrality of "unusual". "I think i'm an exception" shows their uncertainty. Contrast with D. D has phrases like "bad sign" (a phrase meaning danger agead or bad things will happen).  It also has very strong negative phrases like "not friendly" and "worst experience".  Theres no ambiguity or uncertainty. It wasnt an unusual experience it was a terrible one.

It may have been mentioned already, but person D expected the experience to be bad. They directly state in the beginning "I saw this as a bad sign."

“So, I think I’m an exception.” That would mean the person thinks the situation was not typical, or unusual.

They say, “I think the staff was arguing when I got there.” That’s a temporary situation; they’re usually not arguing.

While others have pointed to "I think I'm an exception" in C, I would argue that the person writing that felt that they were the exception to enjoying the place. The writer says two things and doesn't suggest in either case that their experience was unusual, and I would take the last line to mean their taste is the exception (not that their experience was). However, D is not the answer at all. This person also talks about several issues (interestingly, including the staff, as in C), and none of them suggest an unusual experience at the restaurant. Just that he didn't like it. So I can see where some confusion might be, since both reviews talk about things being wrong, and neither says anything like "it seemed they were having an off night, so maybe I'll try again some other time" (that would suggest an unusual experience). Both reviews have an idea of "This restaurant has good reviews, but I disliked it" rather than "this restaurant has good reviews, but I think something outside of the normal happened with my visit." I don't like the question very much for that reason.

C says "But many people say the food here is fabulous. So, I think I'm an exception." This is them explicitly saying that they felt their experience is not the experience of most customers (so it is "probably unusual"). Even if they didn't say that, they were speculating that the staff had an argument which is something you might assume doesn't happen all the time (though it could). On other hand, D's statements about the food and service are far more absolute ("I don't understand why this restaurant is so famous." "The staff here are also not friendly." and the various comments about the menu) which indicates that they think their experience is the standard experience that any customer would have (i.e. a bad experience) and thus is not "probably unusual". Maybe you thought the question was asking about whether the experience was "unusual" in the sense of being "unusually bad" (in which case D is far more negative than C) but "probably unusual" is more about whether they felt that it was unusual compared to how other diners would experience the restaurant. The question would've been phrased differently if they wanted to ask the former question. (FWIW, I am not sure that "So, I think I'm an exception." is entirely correct phrasing here -- "So, I think this was an exception." would be slightly better IMHO -- but I guess they're copying how internet reviews are written and so this is something a native would write even if it reads as a little odd to me. Actually most of the reviews read as slightly stilted / unnatural to me, though you might see people write stuff like that I guess.)

For the record, I would’ve answered D as well.

What is the site called?

I think you’re misunderstanding the question. It says “who thought *his experience* was unusual”. Your interpretation of this seems to be “who thought *the restaurant* was unusual,” but what the question actually means is “who thought that his visit to the restaurant was not the same as most peoples’ visits to the same restaurant?” Since C says he thinks he’s an exception, that means he thinks his experience in the restaurant is not the usual experience people have there. So C is the one who thinks *his experience* was unusual. D, on the other hand, seems to think the *restaurant* itself is unusual.

D is saying that the experience was bad compared to other restaurants. That isn't unusual, that's just different. C is saying that certain circumstances all happened to occur while they were there because they've heard good things. The restaurant was having an off night. The service was not consistent with what normally happens, which is what makes it unusual. The difference is slight, but "unusual" refers to something occurring that is different from what has happened before. C walked in with expectations based on what they've heard from others and found everything amiss. D had no expectations whatsoever and just was displeased.

"Made me feel ... strange" is the sticking point here. Strange and unusual can have similar meanings. But the narrator here feels strange themselves, they don't think the *experience* is necessarily strange/unusual (i.e. it's not necessarily different from most peoples' experiences). Personally, I think it's not a great question. But if it's a very high level exam then I get it.

"But many people say the food here is fabulous. So, I think I'm the exception." I'll be honest here, was this test made by a non-native English teacher? The correct answer aside, the structure of the answers is not well written. That phrase would be better written as *Many people say the food here is fabulous, but I think I may be an exception* Or something along those lines. Starting a sentence with but is grammatically ok, *but* (the good usage actually) generally frowned upon in lieu of other, and frankly better, starts such as nonetheless etc.

As a native speaker, the question itself is god awful. Neither C nor D have clearly "unusual" experiences so now we're down to nitpicking and inferring a more specific question from a vague one. Many people are saying the answer is "C" because C's experience at this particular restaurant is different from those of other diners. However, this leaves off that an "unusual experience" could also be unusual compared to the "usual" restaurant experience. D likely doesn't usually feel "confused and strange" at a restaurant and so this particular experience would count as an "unusual" experience. Maybe I'm a whack job here but how I feel when dining out counts as part of the "experience". All that said, and this might be subtle, but if the question had been, "Who thought his experience was probably not /the/ usual experience" the answer would clearly be C.

C said that other people had good experiences at the restaurant and "I think I'm an exception." D did not say anything like that.

If you told me "I had an unusual experience" without context I would assume that you had an experience that was strange, outside the norm, not in line with your expectations for life. The event is strange compared to other events. However, if you told me "I probably had an unusual experience" without context, I think I would understand that what you mean by that is more like you had a reaction to an event that is different from other people's reaction to the same event. The reaction to the event is strange compared to other reactions. I actually think this is partially an issue with "unusual" but it's more an issue with ambiguity in "experience." Experience can mean a thing that happens, an event, or it can mean your subjective perspective and reaction to a series of events. Think "an adventure experience" vs "a terrible experience." Your teacher wrote a bad question. I'm a native English speaker and if I saw this on a test you fucking bet I'd be raising my hand or approaching the desk for some clarification.

D commented on general circumstances of the restaurant and how they didn’t like them. C commented on specific events and how they were probably worse than other customers. Therefore C had an experience that was unusual compared to the usual customer. D had a bad experience at the restaurant. Which I can see the argument for being unusual if you’re used to good restaurant experiences, but the permanent nature of what he complains about suggest it’s not unusual for customers of this restaurant to have the same experience. So his experience at this restaurant was not unusual. For D to be unusual you need to assume he usually enjoys restaurants. C expressly says he thinks his experience was an exception. So it’s C

As has been mentioned by others, these examples are clearly not written by a native speaker. They aren’t hard to understand, but a little oddly written in places. However, it’s still very clear what the answer is. The answer has to be C, because the question is asking about who thought their experience was “unusual”. This doesn’t mean they had a strange or confusing experience, as OP seems to think; it means their experience was “different to other people’s”. C is the only example that makes that comparison.

I ordered fish and chips should be separated from the rest of the sentence with a semicolon, a contraction, or some other transition. Though this seems like a poorly worded question.

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