Please answer my questions!

Hello everyone!
These are some questions that make me confused! Please help!

1. I shouldn't imagine there is ________ on earth who can answer this question.
A. no one
B. some body
C. anyone

Which is the best answer? In this context,Does the sentence mean negative?

2.You need a special _________ to go in this part of the building.
A. Permission
B. Permit
C. Allowance
D. Agreement

I think all is suitable? What about you? please show me the different between A, B, C and D.

3. "I'm torn between big and small company."
What does he mean by the phrase:"to be torn between"?

1. I would use anyone. You can't use no one because that is a double negative. Somebody is wrong too, although as I happen to be just waking up, I can't think of the reason why.

2. Permit is what I would use here, although I suppose there is no law written in stone that you can't use the others, although they sound odd.

3. Torn between means that he can't decide which company he is going to go with. He recognizes both the good and bad qualities of each company and is having a hard time making a decision between them.

1. C - anyone. You could also say "anybody" (the two words are completely interchangeable). The wording "I shouldn't imagine..." seems odd, though. I'd more likely say "I can't imagine..." or "I couldn't imagine...", but maybe a Brit would say "I shouldn't imagine...". "No one" is indeed a double negative. It would still make sense with "somebody" or "someone" (both are usually written as one word, by the way), but the usual expression is "anybody/anyone on Earth".

2. At first I didn't notice the article "a" before the word "special". In that case, I would have chosen "permission". As it is, I'd say "permit", which would be a document or something that grants the permission.

3. I agree with Rene's explanation.

- Kef

<"No one" is indeed a double negative. >

What about here?

Dave: There's probably no one on earth who can answer your question.

Dan: Do you think so? I shouldn't imagine there's no one who can do so. There must be someone.

From Rene's thread, I would guess that she is an Asian. Probably from Singapore or Hong Kong.

Am I right, Rene?

Pos - Well, yes, but in that case, the intent is clearly that the two negatives cancel out into a positive, which is fine, because that's what happens. But when a statement like that stands on its own, the intention is assumed to be that the speaker intended a single negative, and then it's incorrect.

- Kef