Mistakes or Not?

Others may want to take a scissors to it (TIME 4.12.78, p.66)

They will pump less oil because they will need less revenues  (TIME 12.3.79, p.26)

"I feel it is critically important that we not let the crisis be used to prevent ... " (TIME 16.4.79, p.30)

" ... led the Justice Department to send him on Jan. 12, 1979, the first of two letters ..."   (TIME 4.8.80, p.9)

"Not surprisingly, he has found some ideas about leadership, ones that could help measure the men running for president." (TIME 20.10.80, p.35)

"Well, I'm still where I was over the last 20 years."   (quote Reagan, TIME 20.10.80, p.26)

His family moved in 1936 to the steelworkers' village of Haussy, where the ...  (TIME 1.6.81, p.7)

..., who had been shot with him in that appalling moment in St Peter's Square. (TIME 1.6.81, p.10)

When one embarks on elaborate multiple fantasies of ifs, he enters abstract forests of luck and chance, ... (TIME 27.4.81, p. 35)

Gimbel dove through a cloud of rising air bubbles to the ship. (TIME 14.9.81, p.24)

Typical is the example of an advanced mobile telephone. (TIME 25.1.82, p.46)

Even the still lifes of that great master ...  (TIME 21.12.81, p.51)

Hints of a deal with Nicaragua ... (subtitle in TIME 6.6.83)

"... You used not to have a moustache, used you?" he asked after a time.

             (Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall, Penguin 1972 (1928), p. 207)

Throughout the island, pedestrians and motorcyclists sport surgical masks to protect them from noxious exhaust fumes. (Newsweek 1.9.86, p.26)

for its efforts TAAT won last year the "Europa Nostra" award from the Council of Europe ...    

        (Newsweek 8.9.86, p.28)

The griping has forced to postpone until October its final letter of confirmation. (NW Aug.8,1994, p. 45)

The spirit in which the network was built you can still see in the network today.   (NW Aug.8, 1994, p.47)

What signifies the dog that barked in the night? (NW Aug.29, 94, p.25)

Curiouser and curiouser (Newsweek Sept. 5, 1994, p.25 title)

Long before he was made a cardinal, he published in Poland a book on human sexuality.

          (Newsweek Sept. 12, 1994, p.20)

Other input devices include light pens, ...; joysticks and mouses, which translate physical motion into motion on a computer video display ("Computer," Microsoft Encarta 95)

The tortured statement spoke volumes.    (Newsweek December 26, 1994, p. 12)

Our newborns are immediately swathed in plastic diapers adorned with little Mickey Mouses

                    (Newsweek August 14, 1995, p.21)

These funds they selectively give to loyal candidates or factions. (Newsweek March 4, 96, p. 33)

That they won´t be able to do; ... (Newsweek March 18, 1996, p. 22)

For 700 years this northeast corner of Iberia has flourished when Barcelona ruled it, and languished when its fate was decided in Madrid.   (Newsweek May 20, 1996, p. 10)

... techno‑fanzines like Frontpage advised last year their readers not to waste their money on pale imitations.   Newsweek May 13, 1996, p.48

Much of the technical knowledge Gordon learned as a volunteer on a small‑town ambulance team.  Newsweek June 10, 1996, p.21

What remain of the old culture are young women who dress like geisha and train for three months to be entertainers at parties.            (Newsweek September 2, 1996, p. 46)

And so he offers gestures instead, the appearance of busyness.  (Newsweek September 9, 1996, p.4)

Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister, has made clear that work on European employment would advance more quickly  (The Times (Internet) Sept.30, 1998: France seeks to save Bonn links)

Compulsory English grammar tests for 14‑year‑olds have been cancelled next year after teachers said they did not know how to teach sentence construction     (The Times 13.8.97)

Harrods loses one of its four Royal Warrants yesterday (The Times (Internet) January 14, 2000, front page)

 

Each of the sentences contains an example of what I would spontaneously mark as a mistake.

 

1. Find these “mistakes”

2. Then explain how these forms and expressions may be justified when used by a native speaker.