Please help me........

[impeccableman]

Teachers, I have some queries about grammar usage and collocation.
I hope you can take some time to answer all my questions. ^_^ ( Q: take some time to answer/take some time answer?)

"Special health drinks may seem like the best solution to the problem of dehydration."
Q1:Can I omit the word "the", at the same time, keeping the same meaning?Q2: Can I say "the best solution to dehydration", keeping the same meaning?

"The need to replace lost fluid is a great deal more important."
Q3:Can " replace" collocates with "lost fluid"?
Q4:Is "the" needed?
Q5: Does "replace lost fluid" mean "compensate for the lost fluid"?
Q6: I have checked my dictionary, it is said that "great deal" means "much" or "a lot". Is " ...is a great deal more important." grammatically correct?
Q7: Can l say " ...is great deal important."?
Q8: Can I say " ...is great deal more important? "
Q9: Can I say "...is great more important"?

" Nothing in the world is as effective as water."
Q10: Can I add "quite" before "as"? If not, why?
Q11: If yes, besides putting "quite" before "as", where can I put "quite"?
Q12: Can you suggest some more complex sentence pattern, e.g. involving
"as", "adverb","noun", "had +past participle" or even "then"?

"As our headline explains, it's recommended that you pick up a bottle of Watson's Pure Distilled Water as soon as you've finished your workout."
Q13: The headline is "Cheers to a Healthy Drink (of Water).
Can I say " As our headline explained,..."?
Q14: Can I say "as soon as you finished your workout." Does the meaning of the sentence change?

" So, the next time you're buying drinks in your local supermarket, walk past those unhealthy soft drinks and fattening beers and pick up what is best for your body and your wallet--- pure healthy water."

Q15: Is the short paragraph grammatically correct? If not, can you correct for me?( In fact, I doubt if " the next time you're buying drinks in your local supermarket" miss something like "while". Am I correct? Is the word "the" needed in " the next time....."?)

"As doctors have been telling us for fifty years, to stay in good shape, the average human body needs at least eight glasses of water each day."
Q16: Does "the average" go well with the remaining part of the sentence?

"The letter is about the extremely dangerous practice of almost all mini-bus drivers who stopped at traffic lights to allow passeengers to either get on or off the bus. These drivers frequently stop at the lights even when they are green. Almost every day I see this happening and God knows how many times I've witnessed pedestrians who think that because the mini-bus has stopped, it must be alright to cross. They walk out, normally followed by several others, and only realise, when they reach the middle of the road, that a big bus is approaching them at top speed."
Q17: Is it grammatically correct?
Q18: Can I replace "happening" with "happens"? If not, why?
Q19: Can I replace "who think" with "thinking"? If not, why?
Q20: Is that a verb-to-be needed to be put before "normally followed by several others..."
Q21: Can I say "...at a top speed"? If not, why?

"Yes we should all keep our eyes on the traffic lights and not decide whether it is safe to cross a road simply by looking at the traffic."
Q22: Is it grammatically correct?
Q23: Can I omit the word "our"?

" I would like to know whether it is illegal for mini-bus drivers to stop directly in front of traffic lights, whatever the colour, to allow passengers on and off."
Q24: Is it grammatically correct?
Q25: Should it be "whatever the colour is" instead of "whatever the colour"? Why?

"China, which rivals the United States as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to raise energy efficiency
but has declined to sign up to internationally agreed emissions reductions."
Q26: Is it grammatically correct?
Q27: Should it be "sign up" instead of "sign up to"?

"We frequently hear of employees complaining of not being paid wages owed to them when companies close."
Q28: Is it grammatically correct?

[Pete]

Teachers, I have some queries about grammar usage and collocation.
I hope you can take some time to answer all my questions. ^_^ ( Q: take some time to answer/take some time answer?)
I'd say that the word to is necessary here. As an aside, this is a lot of questions for one post. If you could split up posts like this into several shorter ones, you would probably start getting some replies back sooner.

"Special health drinks may seem like the best solution to the problem of dehydration."
Q1:Can I omit the word "the", at the same time, keeping the same meaning?Q2: Can I say "the best solution to dehydration", keeping the same meaning?
1- No, the sentence doesn't sound natural without "the".
2- I think saying "… to dehydration …" is probably acceptable, though I don't think it would be common. That sentence would sound more natural to me with "for" instead of "to", although "to" is definitely the right preposition in the original sentence.

"The need to replace lost fluid is a great deal more important."
Q3:Can " replace" collocates with "lost fluid"?
Q4:Is "the" needed?
Q5: Does "replace lost fluid" mean "compensate for the lost fluid"?
3- Yes, it sounds fine.
4- Yes, "the" is needed.
5- Not exactly. "Replace lost fluid" means that some fluid has been lost, so you must put fluid back in to take its place. If you "compensate for the lost fluid", you do something to allow life to go on after the fluid was lost, but you don't say explicitly that you are replacing the fluid; you may have some other solution in mind (though I can't think what that solution might be).

Q6: I have checked my dictionary, it is said that "great deal" means "much" or "a lot". Is " ...is a great deal more important." grammatically correct?
Q7: Can l say " ...is great deal important."?
Q8: Can I say " ...is great deal more important? "
Q9: Can I say "...is great more important"?
6- Yes, that sounds fine.
7, 8, 9- No, none of these sound natural.

" Nothing in the world is as effective as water."
Q10: Can I add "quite" before "as"? If not, why?
Q11: If yes, besides putting "quite" before "as", where can I put "quite"?
Q12: Can you suggest some more complex sentence pattern, e.g. involving
"as", "adverb","noun", "had +past participle" or even "then"?
10- Yes. Saying "nothing is quite as effective as water" essentially says, "nothing is as effective as water, but some other things are almost as effective as water."
11- I don't see anywhere else in this sentence where "quite" would be natural.
12- I have no idea what you are asking; sorry. What would this "more complex sentence structure" be trying to accomplish?

"As our headline explains, it's recommended that you pick up a bottle of Watson's Pure Distilled Water as soon as you've finished your workout."
Q13: The headline is "Cheers to a Healthy Drink (of Water).
Can I say " As our headline explained,..."?
Q14: Can I say "as soon as you finished your workout." Does the meaning of the sentence change?
13- Both are OK; there's no difference in meaning. "Explained" takes the point of view that the reader read the headline at least a few seconds in the past. "Explain" emphasizes the viewpoint that the headline continues to say the same thing; the facts are the same in both cases.
14- No, this sentence doesn't sound right.

" So, the next time you're buying drinks in your local supermarket, walk past those unhealthy soft drinks and fattening beers and pick up what is best for your body and your wallet--- pure healthy water."

Q15: Is the short paragraph grammatically correct? If not, can you correct for me?( In fact, I doubt if " the next time you're buying drinks in your local supermarket" miss something like "while". Am I correct? Is the word "the" needed in " the next time....."?)
Actually, this sentence sounds OK to me. It would also be correct to omit the initial "The".

"As doctors have been telling us for fifty years, to stay in good shape, the average human body needs at least eight glasses of water each day."
Q16: Does "the average" go well with the remaining part of the sentence?
Yes, that is fine.
[NOTE: the 8-glasses of water guideline seems to be just one more "urban myth"; see, for example,
--- http://tinyurl.com/4542t4

"The letter is about the extremely dangerous practice of almost all mini-bus drivers who stopped stop at traffic lights to allow passeengers to either get on or off the bus. These drivers frequently stop at the lights even when they are green. Almost every day I see this happening, and God knows how many times I've witnessed pedestrians who think that because the mini-bus has stopped, it must be alright all right to cross. They walk out, normally followed by several others, and only realise when they reach the middle of the road, that a big bus is approaching them at top speed."
Q17: Is it grammatically correct?
Q18: Can I replace "happening" with "happens"? If not, why?
Q19: Can I replace "who think" with "thinking"? If not, why?
Q20: Is that a verb-to-be needed to be put before "normally followed by several others..."
Q21: Can I say "...at a top speed"? If not, why?
17- I made a few corrections above.
18- No, but you could replace it with "happen", the infinitive form.
19- Yes, that substitution would be OK.
20- No, it is fine the way it is.
21- It's certainly grammatically correct. On the other hand, it seems very likely to be an exaggeration, since very few bus drivers drive as fast as the bus can go.

"Yes we should all keep our eyes on the traffic lights and not decide whether it is safe to cross a road simply by looking at the traffic."
Q22: Is it grammatically correct?
Q23: Can I omit the word "our"?
22- It sounds OK to me.
23- I don't think it sounds natural without "our", but might be possible.

" I would like to know whether it is illegal for mini-bus drivers to stop directly in front of traffic lights, whatever the colour, to allow passengers on and off."
Q24: Is it grammatically correct?
Q25: Should it be "whatever the colour is" instead of "whatever the colour"? Why?
24- It seems OK to me.
25- Both forms are OK.

"China, which rivals the United States as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to raise energy efficiency
but has declined to sign up to internationally agreed emissions reductions."
Q26: Is it grammatically correct?
Q27: Should it be "sign up" instead of "sign up to"?
26, 27- This doesn't sound right to me. I can tell what you mean, but I don't think you "sign up to emission reductions." Maybe,
- … but has declined to sign an agreement to meet internationally agreed emissions reductions.

"We frequently hear of employees complaining of not being paid wages owed to them when companies close."
Q28: Is it grammatically correct?
28- Yes, it sounds fine.

[impeccableman]

Pete, thx a lot ^_^