5 exercises — practise article choice with uncountable technical nouns like bandwidth and latency.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the zero article with an uncountable technical noun when speaking generally?
"Bandwidth is expensive on this network tier" is correct: "bandwidth" is an uncountable mass noun referring to a general resource, so it takes no article and no plural form when making a general statement. Option A adds "the", which would only be correct if referring to one specific, previously identified quantity of bandwidth, not a general statement. Option C incorrectly adds the indefinite article "a", which cannot combine with uncountable nouns. Option D incorrectly pluralizes an uncountable noun.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly describes latency in general, uncountable terms without an unnecessary article?
"Latency increases significantly under heavy load" correctly uses the zero article, treating "latency" as an uncountable mass noun making a general claim about system behavior. Option A adds "the", appropriate only when referring to a specific, already-mentioned instance of latency, such as "the latency we measured yesterday". Option B incorrectly uses the indefinite article with an uncountable noun. Option D both incorrectly pluralizes the uncountable noun and fails subject-verb agreement ("latencies increases" is doubly wrong).
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the definite article "the" because it refers to a specific, previously mentioned instance of memory usage, contrasting with the general zero-article pattern?
"Memory usage on the staging server spiked to ninety percent last night; the memory usage has since dropped back to normal" is correct: the first mention uses the zero article for a general statement, and the second mention correctly switches to "the memory usage" because it now refers back to that specific, already-established instance. Option B keeps the zero article in the second clause, losing the specific back-reference that "the" signals. Option C incorrectly adds "a" before an uncountable noun in the first clause. Option D incorrectly pluralizes "usage" as "usages" while also using "have", breaking subject-verb agreement.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the zero article with throughput in a general statement about system capacity?
"Throughput drops sharply once the queue exceeds ten thousand messages" is correct: "throughput" is uncountable and the sentence states a general system property, so no article is needed. Option B adds "the", which implies a specific, already-identified throughput figure rather than a general claim. Option C incorrectly adds the indefinite article to an uncountable noun. Option D incorrectly pluralizes "throughput", which does not take a plural form in this general sense.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly mixes zero article for a general claim with "the" for a specific, measured instance of storage?
"Storage is cheap these days, but the storage on this legacy array is nearly full" is correct: the first clause makes a general claim using the zero article, while the second clause correctly adds "the" because "on this legacy array" specifies a particular, identifiable instance of storage. Option B reverses this pattern incorrectly, using "the" for the general claim and zero article for the specific instance. Option C incorrectly adds "a" before the uncountable noun in the general clause. Option D uses zero article throughout, losing the necessary specificity marker "the" for the particular array being discussed.