Some questions.

[Anonymous]

Please help me figure it out.
1.What is the difference between dilemma and quandary?
2.Is the following sentence correct?
At 10, the gate opened and the president's car drove out.( I think we must use "was driven out" here ?)
3.What does all the way mean in these expressions?
He cast the rod all the way to the right.
Please push the button all the way to the top right of the panel.
4.Why the difference between the two prefixes:
unpunctual-impunctuality
when they both have the root "punctual"?

[sc231426]

1
Dilemma is a much more common word than quandary, which is usually only found in writing and used by the educated. A "dilemma" is a difficult choice you have to make, and it often involves a moral decision: choosing who to be loyal to, choosing what is right or what is easy, etc. "Dilemmas" are always unpleasant. You're in a "dilemma" when you'd rather not make a decision, but you have to. "Quandary" doesn't have to do with making a difficult choice. It simply describes a confused or doubtful state of mind.

2
"At 10, the gate opened and the president's car drove out."

Actually, this is correct. Even though we know that someone is driving the car (the car is not driving itself), it's accepted to say that "the car drove out," the same way we can say that "the plane flew through the air" even when there is a pilot who is flying the plane.

Your suggestion of the passive voice brings up some more confusion because of the verb phrase "to drive out + direct object" = "to drive something out," which means to destroy or remove.

To say "the car was driven out" would mean "something drove the car out," like we'd say "The invading armies drove out the natives."

3
"He cast the rod all the way to the right." = He put the rod as far to the right as possible.
"Please push the button all the way to the top right of the panel." = Please push the button that's at the top of the panel and on the right.


-----top left X X X top right---
------------X X X X X -----------
------------X X X X X -----------
bottom left X X X bottom right


4
unpunctual
impunctuality

Who said that English is always consistent and logical? :) Sorry, there's just not much I can offer you here. You'll find that English is very inconsistent with prefixes and spelling and all sort of things. If you said "impuntual" or "unpunctuality," people would still understand you, of course. I'm afraid you'll just have to memorize which prefix goes with which word.